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After Michael Moore's newest documentary, Sicko, leaked onto the internet last week, the movie's distribution companies Lionsgate and Weinstein Co. have taken an unusual tactic to turn unauthorized distribution lemons into viral marketing lemonade. Originally set for a wide release on June 29th, Sicko will now unspool at the Loews Lincoln Square on the Upper West Side starting this Friday, in addition to screening it for preview audiences around the country throughout this week, according to the New York Times.
After an enthusiastic reception at this year's Cannes Film Festival in May, there's been some mixed early reviews of Moore's indictment of the American health care system, so the bumped up release seems to be to combat that hot and cold buzz, as well as a response to the "growing demand" for the movie, as explained by Gary Faber, Weinstein's executive vice president in charge of marketing. Of course as someone who's anti-copy right law, Moore has said he's fine with the distribution, as long as it's not for profit.
Like with the highly buzzed about releases of the Oscar-winning Bowling for Columbine in '02 and Fahrenheit 9/11 in '04 which won him the Golden Palm at Cannes that year and went on to gross over $200 million worldwide, Moore obviously craves a media stir. The question though, for those who follow box office receipts, is whether the availability of the movie for free on the internet will dampen people's interest in seeing it theatrically, or heighten it.
As for the quality of this new bit of agit-prop from the pudgy Michigander (which Gothamist caught last night at an advance press screening), it's a persuasive and disturbing two hours. Moore introduces us not only to a number of Americans screwed over by their lack of health care, but also interviews numerous health care industry employees disgusted by the business's practices. These stories from ordinary Americans are heart-wrenching, as is the footage Moore shot of very sick 9/11 volunteers finally getting the health care they desperately needed from the socialized medicine system in Cuba. Unfortunately like most Moore movies, the shocking state of America's relationship to its more disenfranchised residents is tempered by the ridiculousness of his on screen antics. Moore filming himself on a boat outside of Guantanamo Bay using a megaphone to try to get entrée into the holding center's medical facility is unnecessarily over the top, no matter how you feel about the issue of privatized heath care.
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Why did the photo change?
"Moore filming himself on a boat outside of Guantanamo Bay using a megaphone to try to get entrée into the holding center's medical facility is unnecessarily over the top, no matter how you feel about the issue of privatized heath care"
why, karen?
i guess that's a fair question metropolisist. i think because it feels to me like certain sequences are mere "stunts" concocted on screen for effect. it's a weird conflict within michael moore' work. on one hand he wants to speak for the common man, to show Americans the ills happening under our noses to our citizens in this altruistic, "truthful" seeming way. but then he puts in these moments in the movies that are so blatantly manipulative and unsophisticated in their staging. by being so grand in his gestures, i think he, and by extension his argument, then looks stupid even if you have been agreeing with him all along.
he's a clown metropolist. his views on the issue are right on, but everytime I see a movie of his i feel I am watching something out of MTV
So our healthcare system is not in a wreck?
I think you got it all wrong here:
"Unfortunately like most Moore movies, the shocking state of America's relationship to its more disenfranchised residents is tempered by the ridiculousness of his on screen antics."
I strongly disagree with you. His on screen antics are what makes Moore's films funny, unique, and stand out from a lot of other political films and documentaries.
why, karen?
Let's see. If we don't give prisoners the best health-care possible, we're violating their human rights and we're awful people. If we DO give them the best health-care possible, we're ALSO awful people.
Moore stages his movies as "documentaries" while cherry-picking facts to support his arguments. He uses these facts to present completely misleading arguments. Then does ridiculous stunts to get media attention.
If I was for euthanizing puppies with rabies, you could show an adorable picture of a puppy with a voiceover that said "TKaisen is for killing puppies" and not be lying. This is how Moore has made his career and people lap it up without questioning it.
Agreed that Moore is far from perfect. But his films are still better than 75% of the crap out now and at least will make the audience think, and hopefully, question and find out more about an important issue.
He has to be over the top to make people think and question their beliefs.
Remember it's not him in front of the camera. You have to see the people who he's interviewing to see the real story.
Moore is the FOX NEWS of the left.
I don't get it. I thought he was going to Cuba to get Cuban healthcare for these 9/11 workers. Why was he trying to get into Guantanamo? To get them American military health care? Or to make some point about Guantanamo/war-on-terror-prisoners generally? Because it's a better visual than standing outside Kaiser-Permanente office park with a megaphone?
Without having seen the film, I agree, that this kind of grandstanding would only seem to detract from the central message of his film.
This is a great movie. Even greater when all those first responders get their first sympton. Only time will tell.
There's no Kaiser Permanente in NYC for 9/11 first responders. there's no presence of KP here at all.
Yes, the trip to Guantanamo is a stunt. But it drives home a very disturbing and valid point. There are 1,000s of 9/11 first responders who are now suffering from serious illness and have little to no health care. Meanwhile, the only place in America that has 100% universal health care is at Guantanamo. How is it that the alleged terrorist receive better care then the hero's of 9/11?
Monster_mash: He's making the point that the prisoners we have locked up as terrorists are getting much better medical care for free than Americans suffering terrorism's effects can afford to buy.
Not just first responders but the residents and workers in Lower Manhattan are suffering the WTC cough.
"Not just first responders but the residents and workers in Lower Manhattan are suffering the WTC cough."
Right, thus the call for universal health care.....
agree with him or not, his movies do get people talking about issues that we wouldn't necessarily be talking about otherwise.
agree with him or not, his movies do get people talking about issues that we wouldn't necessarily be talking about otherwise.
[18] Posted by: tien mao | June 20, 2007 6:21 PM
You're right-absolutely noone has dicussed health care, gun control or 9/11 conspiracy theories in this country since yesterday.
i feel like you went out of your way to find "mixed" reviews, because all of the reviews i've read have been overwhelmingly positive. and i've been keeping track. the ny post doesn't like it - of course - but even fox news said it was "brilliant," "mature," and "uplifting." i think you have to be a human being with the capacity for empathy to appreciate a michael moore film. he's a compassionate man. the blogger from the ny post struck me as someone whos pretty sadistic... or at least totally self centered.
also, i think the guantanamo boat scene was deliberately over the top, to get people talking. unfortunately it seems like whether or not you like michael moore is more of a hot topic than whether or not 9/11 heroes are given health care. why aren't we talking about getting these people healthy? we have a sick set of priorities.
also, michael is definitely in favor of detainees at guantanamo getting health care. the point here is that it seems hypocritical that the gvt doesn't provide health care for our heroes but it does for the people they claim are our enemies. (i only say "claim" because charges have not been filed against most of the detainees.) we're not awful people for providing them health care - we're awful people for not providing our own citizens health care.
what does michael medved say? another tough guy who likes to talk tough. same with dennis miller.
"we're not awful people for providing them health care - we're awful people for not providing our own citizens health care."
See that's what makes it funny-because you know-we do!
Yep, we do, just like we gave that woman in the LA emergency room healtcare when she needed it.
I just saw this movie, and it's shocking an appalling how many people are dying become a board of HMO people or one person working to give the HMO profit, and they're being rewarded for people dying cause you have saved the company money.
It scares me, to think that I might get ill, and get denied for a condition that I never went to the doctor for, but they determine was preexisting. Someone was denied cause she had a yeast infection!
The only problem I have with Michael Moore and the Al Gore documentary, is that this information should be free. Release it in the theaters, but make it available to schools to watch for free. Put it online day of release on iTunes, and charge a premium if you have to. I want to break the law and pull people off the streets to see it - knowledge like this should be shouted everywhere.
Just face it, right-wing-nuts, Moore pisses you off because he's right. The truth has a well known liberal bias.
"See that's what makes it funny-because you know-we do!"
So how do you account for the 45 million people with no health insurance - 9 million of them being children?
I think people who watch Moore films are aware of when he does twist things and we wish he would stop. He does not need to do that. I like him but do not follow blindly what he says.