I saw "Sicko" tonight

[lwcon]

Tonight, I caught a sneak preview of Michael Moore's Sicko, and I found it hard to stay in my seat. I kept wanting to give it a standing ovation well before it was over.

It's two hours that genuinely could change America.

The case he makes for universal health care is overwhelming. If Colin Powell's UN pitch were this compelling, I'd be in Iraq right now still digging for those WMDs.

Enterprising travel agents should stand outside the theater and book health-care tours to any of the zillion other nations that provide free, high-quality medical services. It's simply impossible to watch this movie without getting itchy in your passport pocket.

I always enjoy Moore's movies and TV work but sometimes with nagging reservations about the occasional facile move that detracts a little from his worthy and entertainingly presented points. I never got any such queasy feeling this time around.

One could carp that he didn't provide a forum for industry spokespeople to make their case, but as he's argued they have their own bought-and-paid-for forum, known as "the Capitol."

The industry powerhouses will no doubt deny Moore's claims (if there's one thing they're good at, it's denying claims). And perhaps they'll find a minor false step or two.

But I'm not sure they can put this genie back in the bottle.

What Moore does is take an essential issue off the scrapheap and puts it in terms any American can not just appreciate but get angry and energized about.

After quickly diagnosing the cruel reality of the uninsured, he turns his major focus to holes in the safety net for Americans who have health insurance.

Rather than spoil any of it, I'll simply urge you to see this movie, and bring your winger friends to what Fox News calls "Filmmaker Michael Moore's brilliant and uplifting new documentary."

My favorite health-care fact, which isn't in the movie per se, is this: a few years ago, every industrialized nation but two had national health care — South Africa and the United States. Then South Africa got it. Perhaps Michael Moore has found a way to urge us into catching up to such progressive betters.

Wide release on June 29th. Be there.

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[TeamJordan23]

1. I have seen it also, a great movie. I hope it brings some changes to America. nt.

[snowbear]

2. lwcon, what an awesome review !!

You are the Roger Ebert of DU!

Great write-up! Now I'm anxious to see it ~~~

[lwcon]

4. Hey thanks...

... and thanks for bringing the popcorn!

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[kurth]

3. Meanwhile Dick Cheney receives the best health care in the world

paid for by American taxpayers.

[lwcon]

6. That must be an ethical quandry

Doesn't keeping Cheney's cold, undead heart beating violate the cardinal rule: "first, do no harm"?

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[NanceGreggs]

5. K & R ...

... for a brilliant review -- not only of a movie, but of our failing healthcare system.

Well done, my friend. Well done.

:kick:

[lwcon]

7. Thanks much!

Very nice to hear such kind words from the best of the best at DU!

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[lwcon]

8. Cross-link to another DUer's review

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1172227

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[Radio_Lady]

13. Adding this link to my journal post. Thanks for the review.

[Missy Vixen]

9. lwcon, brilliant review!

>What Moore does is take an essential issue off the scrapheap and puts it in terms any American can not just appreciate but get angry and energized about.<

All it takes is one man. Is that man Michael Moore?

We must start this national dialogue. What's more, we must agree that anyone who takes money from drug companies or insurance conglomerates will not hold the Presidency of the United States. Period.

Julie

[Tellurian]

10. Yes, we've all been living under a rock and living under Republican domination..

Republicans are innately anti-humans, they are corporate shills for their own self-serving agendas.
The rest of the World goes on in harmony with nature, while we, in the so-called Land of the Free, are subjected to Sycophantic Republican mandates.

"The Rich get Richer and the Poor Get Poorer!" Is basically their mantra.

[lwcon]

12. My favorite phrase for their agenda is...

"Power-to-the-powerful." Maybe that's a concept that hardcore Religious Right voters could try to digest as they size up GOP candidates, since Repubs are all about helping rich people through the eye of needle and grinding the poor into the ground. Maybe that would make those voters think twice. But probably not.

Also, this quote is a great one to make stick, since it was an inadvertently back-handed self-compliment from a Republican: "Not everything we've done has been illegal." Wouldn't that make a great GOP slogan for '08?
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[marlakay]

11. Mike was on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me this morning on NPR

it was a good show and Mike won the quiz they gave him questions on manners...they always try to stump people on things they don't know about and said since people are always accusing him of being rude they would ask questions on manners.

I really like Mike. He talked about how he got started. I knew he got fired from a job and then started making movies but I didn't know it was a liberal place and that they fired him on labor day!