Let me start by saying, I haven’t been a big fan of some of Michael Moore’s past films, but I own every one of them on DVD. And I sometimes bought them knowing I wasn’t really going to like them, because I’d already bought a ticket to see them in a theater. Some artists, in my opinion, you just need to support because you’re glad they’re out there pounding. For me, Moore is one of those.
I just saw Sicko, his latest film, on Google Video. (I don’t advocate the skirting of copyright laws. This was blatantly, publicly available on a commercial service. Combined with Moore’s own recent advocacy of his work’s availability for personal viewing, it seemed almost like a viral/promotional effort for the film. If you do find it, let me urge you to support this film at the theater, or by buying a DVD. I certainly will be doing both.)
I’d heard some pre-launch criticism of Sicko, from the usual suspects. And sure, there are some classic Moore-isms here and there; at one point he bullhorns an armed lookout tower outside Gitmo, for example, fruitlessly asking for passage into the harbor so his U.S. firefighter passengers can receive al-Qaeda-level medical care.
But one thing shines through here, no matter how you feel about Moore’s politics, his tactics, or his agenda:
Michael Moore really loves the United States of America.
And the U.S.A., though we sometimes forget, is its people. Elected officials, leaders, bills, policies, whole administrations may go wildly astray; our Founding Fathers warned us to watch out for that. They also gave us the right and the responsibility to call out and correct those ills before they can take us all the way down. That’s us, we, the people, not them, our representative government. Their voice is only as strong as we allow it to be, and with every election, we can change it for the better. Ours is the voice the Constitution protects.
Moore’s voice is very important, I believe, and that’s never been more evident than in this sensitive, powerful movie. Normally, I would have bought a DVD of it on principle alone. Now that I’ve seen it for free? I’m going to pre-order 5 copies of Sicko
