Michael Moore's Sicko Coming June 29- Page 2

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 5/11/07 at 1:45am

By the way

Does anyone else feel CANADIAN BACON is horrifically underrated?

[misschung]

Posted: 5/11/07 at 1:57am

I loved Farenheit 911.

If only for the absolutely brilliant footage of John Conyers saying "Sit down, my son...."


On a serious note, tho - I am so happy this movie is coming out. My mom is in a big battle with her employers right now at a medical center. They are trying to take away health benefits at retirement.

Updated On: 5/11/07 at 01:57 AM

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 5/11/07 at 2:00am

i did not enjoy farehnheit too much. it was way too unfocused. i thought bowling gave you much more to talk about and ruminate over.

[misschung]

Posted: 5/11/07 at 10:05am

I loved bowling.

"you couldn't fit a knife through this door?"

"no"

"what if I had a spear?"

[romantico]

Posted: 5/11/07 at 2:55pm

Moore's sticking it to Bush! lets just hope Michael doesn't take any small private planes to promote the film. He could be Wellstoned by the Bushies if he does!

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Filmmaker Michael Moore has asked the Bush administration to call off an investigation of his trip to Cuba to get treatment for ailing Sept. 11 rescue workers for a segment in his upcoming health-care expose, "Sicko."

Moore, who made the hit documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" assailing President Bush's handling of Sept. 11, said in a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Friday that the White House may have opened the investigation for political reasons.

"For five and a half years, the Bush administration has ignored and neglected the heroes of the 9/11 community," Moore said in the letter, which he posted on the liberal Web site Daily Kos. "These heroic first responders have been left to fend for themselves, without coverage and without care.

"I understand why the Bush administration is coming after me - I have tried to help the very people they refuse to help, but until George W. Bush outlaws helping your fellow man, I have broken no laws and I have nothing to hide."

The health-care industry Moore skewers in "Sicko" was a major contributor to Bush's 2004 re-election campaign and to Republican candidates over the last four years, Moore wrote.

"I can understand why that industry's main recipient of its contributions - President Bush - would want to harass, intimidate and potentially prevent this film from having its widest possible audience," Moore wrote.

Treasury officials did not immediately respond on Friday to a request for comment on Moore's letter to Paulson.

The department's Office of Foreign Assets Control notified Moore in a letter dated May 2 that it was conducting a civil investigation for possible violations of the U.S. trade embargo restricting travel to Cuba.

Moore questioned the timing of the investigation, noting that "Sicko" premieres May 19 at the Cannes Film Festival and debuts in U.S. theaters June 19. The Bush administration knew of his plans to travel to Cuba since last October, said Moore, who went there in March with about 10 ailing workers involved in the rescue effort at the World Trade Center ruins.

OFAC's letter to Moore noted that he had applied in October 2006 for permission as a full-time journalist to travel to Cuba, but that the agency had not made any determination on his request.

The agency gave Moore 20 business days to provide details on his Cuba trip and the names of those who accompanied him.

Moore won an Academy Award for best documentary with his 2002 gun-control film "Bowling for Columbine" and scolded Bush in his Oscar acceptance speech as the war in Iraq was just getting under way.

The investigation has given master promoter Moore another jolt of publicity just before the release of one of his films. "Fahrenheit 9/11" premiered at Cannes in 2004 amid a public quarrel between Moore and the Walt Disney Co., which refused to let subsidiary Miramax release the film because of its political content.

Miramax bosses Harvey and Bob Weinstein ended up releasing the film on their own and later left to form the Weinstein Co., which is releasing "Sicko."

"Fahrenheit 9/11" won the top prize at Cannes and went on to become the top-grossing documentary ever with $119 million.


http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070511/D8P2AT100.html

Updated On: 5/11/07 at 02:55 PM

[mejusthavingfun]

Posted: 5/11/07 at 3:01pm

snap!

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 5/19/07 at 9:35pm

it sounds as if sicko is more "roger & me" than f911, which is a pretty good thing.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 5/21/07 at 9:37am

An excellent, even-handed review from salon.com. DYING TO SEE THIS!!
SICKO

[romantico]

Posted: 5/21/07 at 11:08am

'Triumphant Return'

"After the screening, several hard-nosed U.S. critics and journalists admitted to crying during the film."
-- Wall Street Journal

"Brilliant and Uplifting"
-- FOX News

"Comedy, Poignancy and Outrage"
-- Variety

"Very Strong and Very Honest"
-- Stephen Schaefer, Boston Globe


Love him or hate him, Michael Moore is a GREAT filmmaker and I think thats what pisses off alot of his critics. '


May 20th, 2007 8:02 am
Rose Ann DeMoro: "Sicko" Diagnoses a Cure for the Nation

Perhaps the exponents of expediency just haven't met the rescue heroes of September 11 still plagued by debilitating respiratory illnesses, but unable to get the healthcare they need in the country they volunteered to help in our hour of despair.

Or the machinist and his newspaper editor wife who had to sell their home and move into a cramped room in their daughter's house when his heart attacks and her cancer caused their medical bills to soar. Or the woman whose husband died after their insurer refused to authorize a bone marrow transplant from his younger brother because it was "experimental." They are among the stars of Michael Moore's riveting new film "Sicko," that we were privileged to be among 50 people in an intimate private screening in New York a few days before the premiere in Cannes Saturday night where it was the hottest ticket in town and greeted with well-deserved rave reviews. Many of those in the New York audience, the real life stars of "Sicko," were brought to tears by a film and filmmaker who viewed their lives with a lot more humanity than the insurance companies who had treated them with such calculated disregard. The people, who, as one industry whistleblower says in the film, didn't just "fall through the cracks." They were deliberately thrown overboard. Cast aside by the same insurance giants that far too many ostensible reformers think we should reward for their greed by funneling them hundreds of millions dollars more. "Sicko" is not just an indictment of an indefensible healthcare industry in the U.S. It's a rejoinder for those who think we can fix the soulless monster by tinkering with an unconscionable system that puts us further in thrall to those who created the crisis. Following the screening, Moore put it as simply as possible: the private insurance companies "have to go." Unlike too many of our friends in the progressive community, Moore did not go for the easy way out. There are no calls here for forcing individuals to buy unaffordable, junk insurance. Or handing over ever more tax dollars to those who profit by denying care, and whose biggest accomplishment, says Moore, "is buying our U.S. Congress" to protect their wealth and stranglehold over our health. There are no cynical ad homonyms to not let "the perfect be the enemy of the good" - the last refuge of the politicians desperate to convince us, and perhaps themselves as well, that the Faustian compromises they propose will all be OK. Tell it to the worker in "Sicko" who had to choose between restoring one severed finger for $60,000 or another for $12,000.

No, Moore doesn't feel he has to temporize with people's lives or accede to those whose goal, he says, is to "frighten and demoralize" people so they are unable to fight.

Moore doesn't think the problem is "too much" medical care, or people who want to over utilize the system by spending hours waiting in an Emergency Room. Among the rare gems here is one of Richard Nixon's taped conversations, in the Oval Office with John Ehrlichman on the eve of Nixon's 1971 law promoting managed care. You can rest assured, Ehrlichman promises Nixon, "all the incentives are towards less medical care."

"Sicko" has no trouble finding a solution. It can be found in the rest of the world. There's no hand wringing here for the ideologues who are already attacking Moore for promoting the alternative- medical systems he visits to Canada, England, France, and even Cuba, countries, says Moore, where when it comes to the nation's health, they know the distinction between the "we" and the "me.".

Here's what Moore found. Care "doesn't depend on your premiums, it depends on your needs," the film reports. You don't have to check your health security at the door, or mortgage your future when at your most sick and vulnerable.

Moore's not even afraid of the inevitable complaints about "socialized" medicine. "Back home in America we're socializing lots of things," "Sicko" finds, among them our fire and police service, Social Security checks, and even the library.

At a time when the apologists of accommodation are promoting the lowest common denominator, Moore most of all offers a vision and hope.

"Not all of us have a kid in Iraq, but all of us have been to see a doctor, or paid for a prescription, or have elderly parents," he said after the screening. To put it another way, there's no free marketers in hospital beds, just patients.

The health care crisis "will bring us together," says Moore. And, I'd add, "Sicko" will help us get there.


http://www.michaelmoore.com

[keen on kean]

Posted: 5/21/07 at 11:18am

The American health care system is full of waste, inequity and fraud. Add to the overburdened system the abrupt additional cost of 12 million naturalized immigrants, and it will fail. Congress won't address the issue until that failure. Thank you Michael Moore for making the issue more visible. I can't wait to see this movie.

[blueroses]

Posted: 5/21/07 at 11:38am

My parents went through their savings when my father was terminally ill...he had insurance, had Medicare AND was in a union and still got wiped out. I think this movie will be an eye opener.

[romantico]

Posted: 5/21/07 at 11:50am

Keep in mind when F911 came out Michael offered $10,000 for anyone who could prove anything to be wrong. He never paid a dime out to anyone. He is offereing the same for this movie. The Drug companys and Insurance company will try their best to discredit Moore and this film. I hope he has bodyguards because these thugs are nothing more than gansters and they will DO ANYTHING to silence those who speak out or expose them.

[mejusthavingfun]

Posted: 5/25/07 at 1:26pm

The film looks fantastic!
Watch it here!

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 5/28/07 at 12:44am

just watched the trailer. should end up being a cool movie. it looks more in line with THE AWFUL TRUTH than with F911 which is a very very good thing.

i haven't really talked about this on this board but i've had my own health care horror story in the past. through a horrible misdiagnosis, my father ended up near death with 99% blockage in his heart. THANK GOD everything turned out alright and he got the immediate surgery he needed but when it came time to get the doctors that saved his life rewarded for their work...well...it's best not to go there.

[Yawper]

Posted: 6/5/07 at 12:15am

Oprah's to have Michael Moore on her show today (Tuesday)

[pab]

Posted: 6/8/07 at 9:40am

Michael Moore wants to hear from you

[romantico]

Posted: 6/11/07 at 4:07pm

They just don't get it!The more they scream kick, threaten and start "investigations" the guiltier they look. Just what are they afraid of? We all know Bush always gets back at those who speak against him in public... Joe Wilson, Michael Moore... It's his trademark....

Filmmaker's lawyer claims discrimination

By David Germain / Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - Michael Moore's attorney said Monday that the filmmaker's criticism of the Bush administration may have prompted a federal investigation into his trip to Cuba for the upcoming health-care documentary, "Sicko."

In a letter to the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, attorney David Boies noted that Moore has been a critic of President Bush in his books and films, which include 2004's "Fahrenheit 9/11," a harsh indictment of White House actions regarding the Sept. 11 attacks.

"For this reason, I am concerned that Mr. Moore has been selected for discriminatory treatment by your office," Boies wrote in response to a letter sent to Moore last month from Dale Thompson, OFAC chief of general investigations and field operations.

The OFAC letter notified Moore that he was under investigation for possible violations of the U.S. trade embargo restricting travel to Cuba.

A copy of Boies' letter was obtained by The Associated Press in advance of an afternoon news conference at the attorney's New York office by Moore, Boies and Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman of the Weinstein Co., which is releasing "Sicko" on June 29.

"I am requesting that you provide to me information regarding the person or persons who participated in making the decision to send Mr. Thompson's letter, the nature of the discussions that took place, and the knowledge your office had of Mr. Moore and his trip to Cuba at the time the letter was sent," Boies wrote.

Moore went to Cuba in March to obtain health care for three ailing Sept. 11 rescue workers. He claims in the film that the U.S. government had left the workers to fend for themselves on ailments that resulted from their work at Ground Zero.

Last fall, Moore had asked the Treasury Department for permission to go to Cuba under U.S. rules permitting travel there by journalists. OFAC's letter noted that Moore went to Cuba without having gotten any response from the office.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/news/article.php?id=9881

[mejusthavingfun]

Posted: 6/13/07 at 4:09pm

Michael Moore: 3500 troops could be alive if media had done its job
06/13/2007 @ 10:00 am
Filed by David Edwards and Muriel Kane


Michael Moore appeared on ABC's Good Morning America Wednesday, expressing a concern that the media will play the same role in the health care debate as it did in the Iraq War debate.

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"Had ABC News, NBC News, CBS News been more aggressive in confronting the government with what they were telling us back in 2003 about Iraq, you might have prevented this war," Moore said. "3500 soldiers that are dead today may not have had to die had our news media done its job. ... The media didn't ask the questions. The media got embedded and went on board for a little thrill ride."

"It's not a thrill ride," objected host Chris Cuomo. "Those men and women put themselves in danger. ... To say the media is complicit in the death of soldiers --"

"This media is complicit," insisted Moore. "The media didn't ask the questions that should have been asked."

The segment then turned to Moore's latest film, Sicko. Moore argued that the US needs a single-payer health system like "every other Western industrialized country." However, he also said of the current presidential candidates that "these guys are bought and paid for by this industry, and that's why we're not going to have change."

On Tuesday, RAW STORY reported on the first part of the two day interview with Moore, in which Moore asserted that the health care in America is a system that "essentially is run by greed." Moore also went on to defend his tactics in the film, including taking ailing 9/11 workers to Guantanamo Bay and Cuba for treatment.


Story and video can be found at this link.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 6/13/07 at 4:13pm

pure raw unadulterated sexuality.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 6/14/07 at 3:34pm

My friend just .......ed a copy of this and said it's the best movie he's made yet by far.

[mejusthavingfun]

Posted: 7/5/07 at 1:37pm

Anyone else have a chance to see this?

[romantico]

Posted: 7/5/07 at 4:57pm

I've seen it twice since Sunday and LOVE IT! You'll leave the theatre feeling very angry but its a must see.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 7/7/07 at 1:36am

Just saw it the other day. Probably Moore's best and definitely his least exploitative. Yes, there are moments of blatant exploitation but, overall, this film is a much more focused arguement than F9/11.

The last twenty minutes are extremely powerful.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 7/10/07 at 1:49pm

But yeah. Very good film.

[HDThoreau2]

Posted: 7/10/07 at 1:51pm

Right, very good fiction.
Moore Throws a Hissy Fit-Hilarious!