Sicko

Theatrical Release Date: 2007 06 29 (USA)

UPC: 796019807500

Studio: Weinstein Company

MPAA Rating: PG13   Contains:[Profanity]

Summary: After exploring the predominance of violence in American culture in Bowling for Columbine and taking a critical look at the September 11th attacks in Fahrenheit 9/11, activist filmmaker Michael Moore turns his attentions toward the topic of health care in the United States in this documentary that weighs the plight of the uninsured (and the insured who must deal with abuse from insurance companies) against the record-breaking profits of the pharmaceutical industry. Moore interviews a number of people who have been left broke by medical bills even though they were fully insured, and explains how the corporate drive for profits has left numerous people in financial and medical disarray. After hearing that detainees in Guantanamo have access to free health care, Moore assembles a group of World Trade Center rescue workers to travel to Cuba in order to get the medical help they need for ailments they incurred in 2001. Moore's film debuted at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Category: Culture & Society

Awards: Film Presented – Cannes Film Festival Best Documentary – Los Angeles Film Critics Association Best Documentary – New York Film Critics Online Best Documentary – Washington D.C. Film Critics Association Best Documentary – Broadcast Film Critics Association Best Documentary – Chicago Film Critics Association Best Documentary – Southeastern Film Critics Association Best Documentary – Golden Satellite Award Best Documentary – St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Best Documentary – Las Vegas Film Critics Association Best Documentary Screenplay – Writers Guild of America Best Documentary – National Society of Film Critics Best Documentary – Phoenix Film Critics Association Best Documentary – Producers Guild of America Best Documentary Feature – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Documentary Feature – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Film Presented – London Film Festival IDA Feature Documentary Award – International Documentary Association

Features: Sicko Goes to Washington
This Country Beats France
Uniquely American
What if You Worked for G.E. in France?
Sister Mary Fidel
Who Would Jesus Deny?
More With Mike & Tony Benn
A Different Kind of Hollywood Premiere
"Alone Without You" music video performed by The Nightwatchman
Interview gallery
Theatrical trailer
Language: English Dolby 5.1
Subtitles: Spanish, Enlgish SDH

Sicko

Format: DVD

Release Date: 11/06/2007

Audio: DD5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1

Runtime: 123 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English

Subtitles: English,Spanish

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Disc #1 -- Sicko
1. Meet the Smiths [9:50]
2. Rejected: Too Thin, Too Fat [5:55]
3. Happy, Insured Customers [5:17]
4. The Hit Man [7:02]
5. A Public Confession [1:59]
6. The Birth of the HMO [11:32]
7. O Canada! [11:20]
8. Great Britain: Where's the Billing Department? [9:47]
9. Democracy Is Revolutionary [7:26]
10. An American Filmmaker in Paris [11:45]
11. The French: Time to Chuck the Freedom Fries [5:55]
12. "Who Are We?" [5:46]
13. Sick & Forgotten: Our Heroes of 9/11 [7:16]
14. Escape to Guantanamo [1:28]
15. Cuban Care [5:41]
16. We Sink or Swim Together [7:14]

Perry Seibert

There's an old saying among lawyers that, during a trial, you never ask the witness a question you don't already know the answer to. Michael Moore follows this adage throughout his alternately entertaining and disturbing documentary Sicko, as he interviews doctors from countries with nationalized healthcare, asking each one how much patients pay and then feigning surprise each time the physician gives the same oh-so-shocking response (that response, of course, being "nothing"). However, when detailing a handful of horror stories people share about the deaths of loved ones caught in the profit-driven, red-tape filled bureaucracy of HMOs, Moore never feigns his anger. The twist being that Moore expresses that anger not in his physical appearance or his voice, but in the way he wields his edits like a sledgehammer, using every element in a director's bag of tricks to make the audience feel the loss, pain, and outrage he and his subjects feel at the failure of the health care system. In detailing how insurance companies, drug companies, and the government created the health care system that exists in America at the beginning of the 21st century, Moore manages to skewer Nixon, Reagan, and Hillary Clinton, while also providing an enlightening interview with a British politician, Tony Benn, who discusses how socialized medicine came to be in the U.K., as well as the importance of democracy. This interview goes to the heart of Sicko's message because democracy and power are the larger concepts Moore wants his audience to think about after they view the film. From the beginning of his directorial career, Moore has always been a masterful agitprop filmmaker. He gets under the skin of both his supporters and his detractors because he understands how to appeal to emotions, and although he doesn't always know how to fix the problems he addresses in his films, there's never doubt that those problems are serious and need to be addressed. At his best (and Sicko is among his best), Moore places his subject in the right context, in order to illustrate what these issues say about America on a larger scale. Moore directs these grand questions toward his audience, even though most of the time, his answers to the questions are clear. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Michael Moore  Director 
Michael Moore  Producer 
Michael Moore  Screenwriter 
Bob Weinstein  Executive Producer 
Harvey Weinstein  Executive Producer 
Kathleen Glynn  Executive Producer 
Erin O'Hara  Composer (Music Score) 
Meghan O'Hara  Producer 
Michael Moore  Actor 

Country: USA