Bowling For Columbine - it has its flaws, but there's a general good message about responsible gun control, ownership, and the utterly oddball surroundings of American gun culture. The idea that you can buy a gun and all the ammo you could want in a supermarket, but not an Unrated DVD of a horror movie, is just ludicrous.
Fahrenheit 9/11 - this is quite literally where I switched off to Michael Moore (having not seen anything he'd done prior to BFC, still haven't either). His own hatred for Bush just overflows unprofessionally as facts are thrown around as liberally as the lies are. It's all rather band-wagon-jumpy for my liking, and that's not to say I'm pro-Bush. I'm indifferent, he is a bit of an idiot, but I don't live in America so I won't pretend to know anything about American politics.
Sicko - once again the facts are as fudged as a Labour manifesto (now you see where my political vibes don't lie, hahaha). The truth is mixed with confusion and choice cuts - the key choice cut being the representation of the UK's NHS. Now while it's better to have a free public health service, Moore completely neglects to mention that it's all paid for by us ultimately through taxes. He also forgets that NHS Dentists are fewer and farther between than before, some people are electing to pull their own teeth out and you pay over £15 for a 2 minute, once-a-year check-up-fly-around-your-gob if you're lucky enough to have a place on an NHS Dentist's client list.
The deadly and growing problem of MRSA and CDIF are also neglected. The fact that GPs got more money for doing less work is skipped over, same goes for the 'business hours medical care' vibe that's creeping in in some places. The issue of waiting lists is neglected, as is the closure of localised facilities, as is the deadly increase in beaurocracy and pen pushing, as is the increase in training medical practioners graduating and then failing to get a job whatsoever.
All issues that are shown time and again in the papers, on the news, and represented in the house of commons, not to mention my family's personal interaction with the NHS. Some will be lucky enough to have never run into any problems, but evidently many are running into problems - some of them large and life-endangering, even life-taking. When the staff themselves say something is rotten in the state of Denver, who are you going to believe? Government mouthpieces showering you with fudged statistics, or those working on the front line?
This brings me to a sidetrack for a moment, I would like to say that I have maximum respect for nursing staff. From what I've seen first hand, they're the front line of medical care - whether it's working or faltering - they get the shit end of the wedge for most definitely not enough money. Our absolute respect is owed to them (except the few bad apples there no doubt are in the nursing profession - call me a pessimist here, but every section of society and the workplace has a bad egg or two).
At the very least, if our fingers get severed we're quids in and pay nothing, but with the amount of public spending that's been lavished on the NHS (draining into silver-lined pockets, rather than clean wards where it's supposed to be going) we should have the best health service in the world - and yet we don't and it's worse than it was 10 years ago.
A bit of a tangent rant, but the fact that all these problems were completely ignored by Moore, and the NHS being painted as the messiah of health care (complete with a bunch of Brits mockingly-chortling into their six-quid-prescriptions cut together to shove a middle finger right into the eye of all Americans), is just offensive. This is my British point-of-view of the film, and the only one I can give.
My point is, Sicko is exploitative, it's selective in its attention and it's manipulative. The American health system certainly appears to be a dodgy old mare (I'll go no further as I don't live there and won't pretend to know of it first hand) - there's a solid and important message that must be heard in the film, but once again Moore loses his bottle for a fair, intelligent discussion and instead goes for populist entertainment - documentary-as-movie.
The guy even exploits the fact he ANONYMOUSLY sent a cheque to pay for the health care, of the partner of a man who runs an anti-Moore website, for this movie ... I mean come on.
There's a message within him somewhere, if only he wasn't such a bloated afford-to-be-Liberal do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do'er.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
1 comment:
i cant stand moore anymore.
bowling for columbine seemed to be a geniune docuementary but farenheti was a farce, im a little bit more leaning against the bush administration, as in as much as i think theyve made some wrong choices, but farenheit was a farce, it was propaganda and nothign more.
the one big moment i was literally disgusted by it was how he would hang outside an office t about 9 am when the only people still heading into the building are late, and then when they understandably decline to be interviewed and hurry in he puts them walking away in slow motion to sinister music.
speaking as someone who wants to be a film maker myself thats just perverting the art form to force his own view upon the viewer and its abomnible.
- in hindsight maybe we should all join up with dj and just do a rant blog since all of us seem to take up a portion of eaches jsut bitching about stuff.lol.
Post a Comment