I saw Sicko this weekend. I was pleasantly surprised that Michael Moore toned it down quite a bit from his previous endeavors. There were all his usual examples of how other countries do "it" (in this case, health care) better than the U.S. but the examples in the film were much less stylized and much more to the point. They even seemed to feature real people. In particular, the Cuba scenes were both hilarious and heart wrenching (I will admit that I shed a few tears when the Cuban firefighters were honoring the 9/11 rescue workers - I'm not too proud to admit that, but mind you, I'm an emotional basket case these days so take it with a grain of salt).
Overall though, I was left with the feeling that the under served and underrepresented masses who needed to see this film and rally around it would probably not see this film, that just like Al Gore and as with Moore's 9/11 film it was all really just preaching to the choir... and that I really need to get the hell out of the United States.
Attention, single heterosexual males with no or little baggage between the ages of 30-45 in Toronto (or better yet, Paris): call me! (me téléphoner!)
No I actually think people outside the 'choir' will see this. As pessimistic as I've gotten about media and business, etc, I think the documentary form is in for a bright future thanks to people like Michael Moore and Errol Morris and Frontline, and yes Al Gore and the people he worked with, and thanks to creative people on the Internet like Ze Frank.
ReplyDeleteThe documentary is the future of news media, probably. Fast, with high emotional impact and considerable depth, and huge barriers to entry outside the Internet, set to be freed by the low barriers of the Web.
I hope you are right about the right people seeing this...
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