MICHAEL MOORE

Bil’s rating (out of 5):  BBBB. 

USA, 2007.  Dog Eat Dog Films, The Weinstein Company.  Screenplay by Michael Moore.  Cinematography by Andrew Black.  Produced by Michael Moore, Meghan O’Hara, Susannah Price.  Music by Erin O’Hara.  Film Editing by Geoffrey Richman, Chris Seward, Dan Swietlik.  

Documentarian and loveable rabble-rouser Michael Moore delves into the All American Dream once again for this wholly absorbing film on the state of the nation’s health care. He interviews scores of subjects in five different countries to come up with evidence that the United States is in favour of a system that allows multi-billion dollar insurance corporations to take advantage of the population and allow people to suffer needlessly and, in some cases, die. He later travels to Canada, England, France and Cuba and finds four countries where health care is universally free and does not mire its society down in the kind of communist nightmare that the US government has been convincing its people that this sort of system would be. Moore detractors will have plenty of reasons to find holes in his arguments, as rightly they should–a good essayist challenges the evidence to support their theory with contrasting material, while Moore slants his proofs towards his own favour (i.e. finds the one hospital in Ontario where Canadians don’t spend hours in waiting rooms or deal with the shortage of available equipment). Whatever his tactics, however, there are a lot of sad truths to be found here, and Moore shouldn’t be criticized for telling his own country, which advertises itself as the greatest democracy in the world, to start putting its money where its mouth is and stop taking the sides of the greediest players in the game. Whatever your take on the events, there’s no denying that it is a highly entertaining film and at times very moving.

Academy Award Nomination:  Best Documentary Feature