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Week Of June 18, 2007 - Mon / Wed / Fri
June 20, 2007
Two Too True For You
Part IIMichael Moore is an American of singular importance. He is able to crystallize ideas, usually ideas that enrage him, into accessible informational bites, to infuse them with undeniable humanity, and to offer powerful perspectives, even when engaged in unmitigated polemic drama.
There is plenty to like in Sicko, his newest film. But it suffers what his documentary work, starting with Roger & Me, has so brilliantly avoided ... an indecisive tendency to lose the audience in the effort to overreach.
It's not giving anything away to tell you that the film essentially offers two perspectives. One is Moore's look at some ugly stories of American healthcare and an insurance industry that would rather you die than be sick and spend their money. The other is Mike Tours The World, as he learns that lots of places have healthcare that is paid for with taxes and not insurance and deductibles.
My experience of this film is that with just over two hours of running time is not enough to properly tell both stories so, particularly in the American part, Moore is forced to resort to the dubious simplicities that make Fahrenheit 9/11 a laugh riot with no lasting impact on society.
Why don't we have national healthcare in America? Moore would have you believe that Hillary Clinton's efforts failed exclusively because a bunch of old white men were intimidated by this young, smart, sexy woman and her bold ideas. And, as presented by Moore, most of these old white men were Republicans. Unfortunately, it was a lot more complex than that.
For instance, Wikipedia offers this from one of our great Democratic senators, "Daniel Patrick Moynihan qualified his agreement that 'there is no health care crisis' by stating 'there is an insurance crisis' but also indicated 'anyone who thinks [the Clinton health care plan] can work in the real world as presently written isn't living in it."
But I digress ...
Typical of the film, Moore opens by saying he is not going to make the film about people who don't have health insurance in America ... but not only tells a number of those stories, but keeps referring to them throughout the film. And when telling the tales of people whom the insurance industry failed, the stories are so one-sided that you start to wonder whether anyone ever gets a chance to use an MRI without flirting with a bankruptcy.
But the movie really starts to improve when Moore leaves America. It is only when he lands in other countries and marvels at their healthcare systems that we get to see our old pal, Mike. The heavy breathing, ironically children's book-ish voiceovers of the American horror stories is gone and Moore, the genuinely interested investigator returns. Sure, he repeats the, "How much do you pay for all this?" gag a few too many times. But Moore is at his best when he finds out the general truths, positive or negative, about his subjects.
My problem is that Moore starts the investigation of what is wrong with the American healthcare system, but doesn't really get serious about anything other than why politicians are so enamored of the insurance industry. I get it. It might be impossibly boring and not very Moore-ian. But what he does do, we get pretty quickly and he keeps beating that drum.
Alternately, his view of national healthcare in other countries is without any negative stories, which is very seductive while you are watching the movie, but leaves a lot of question marks when the film is over. It is just one person, but I asked a woman who holds dual citizenship in England and America about going to England to have a baby. Moore makes it sound like nirvana. But she quickly said, "No thanks." Her experience is that there are some major flaws in the system. For me, that doesn't make me less interested in the idea of national healthcare for the United States. But it makes me wish Moore had a little more balance in his argument, so I was armed with an answer other than, "Really? Did you know they'd send a nanny to your flat?"
I think Michael Moore loves America and loves the idea of a true democracy. Perhaps the single most compelling piece of footage in the film for me was an interview with a former member of the British Parliament (Labour Party), Tony Benn, now 82. Benn was enough of a left-wing radical that others who followed his ideas were called "Bennites." Still, the guy comes off as brilliant, sincere, and true in his belief in humanity. Like Moore, his philosophy includes the idea of transferring power from the "wallet to the ballot".
Moore's last stop on the world tour is a strong one ... Cuba. And Moore doesn't just go to Guantanamo to make the gag work. He and his group end up in Cuba, being cared for by Cuba and its government. Like many before him, Moore gets sucked up into the magic of Havana, letting Castro get away with being little more than a replacement dictator to the one the American's preferred. (Expect pickets in Miami.) I don't think Moore is anti-American, but the glee of perfect healthcare in Cuba without any mention of such minor inconveniences as no potable water in a large percentage of homes on the world famous Malecon make you wonder how far he is willing to twist reality to make his point. Still, with a little more time to the world tour and a little more balance, Moore On Tour could have been a truly great film.
Moore is a great character, a brilliant man, and an expert manipulator. He was smart enough to step away from the $100 million expectation in his follow-up to Fahrenheit 9/11. And if Sicko is more successful in America than Bowling For Columbine, it will be a small miracle. The discussion of health care just doesn't inspire, sadly. You can see Moore trying to stir things up, waiting for the big insurance show to drop on him in order to make the film seem more a must see. Unfortunately, it is neither a slam bam evening of cinema nor a well researched, sharply argued look at the need for America to get serious about voting for health instead of status quo.
Still, I walked out of the theater thinking good thoughts about the idea of national healthcare in America. So if the filmmaker didn't quite succeed, the polemicist did ... though I was on his team on this issue when I walked into the theater.
I was looking forward to falling in love with Moore all over again. But instead, I find myself looking forward to the next film, whatever the subject. I hope that Moore will remember who he is ... a very smart filmmaker who finds 20 ways to tell us about one strong idea from all different angles. In Sicko, it's too many ideas (two) and too many of the same ways of telling us about it. So close and yet ...
E Me.
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