Michael Moore's "Sicko"

[Catchawave]

Nice preview/interview over at dKos, and a snip:

But the reason most of us were there was to see some clips of his new movie "Sicko", which will be out next summer. It is the first time he has ever screened parts of a movie before it was finished, and he ascribed the technical problems they were having with the "Slacker" clips as a higher being punishing him for breaking with tradition.

He spoke at length about how he loves it when during his shoots he ends up proving his premise wrong. In "Bowling For Columbine" it happened when he realized that Canada has 10 million households and 7 million guns (mostly rifles and shotguns), and yet barely more than 100 murders by gun per year. He had to completely change his movie's original premise (that all they had to do was restrict guns and the problems would go away), in favour of determining what about being American made people want to shoot each other.

While filming Sicko, he knew he couldn't just do a movie about how American health care sucks. After 20 minutes, he said, the audience would just be bored, since most of them would already buy the premise.

So instead, he says that his movie will look more at how Americans are "wired differently" than the rest of the world. In Canada, he said, we are raised with the concept of "we're all in this boat together", and that if one of us suffers, we collectively suffer a little bit. In America, he says, it's always been "pull yourself up by your bootstraps", and "I got mine, fuck you".

More Moore: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/9/9/05245/85246

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. When is it coming out?

[Catchawave]

6. Next summer, per the article

Just in time for Campaign '08's pre-primary season :hi:

[CarlVK]

2. With all due respect to Mr. Moore, I don't need a movie to tell me this.

Most thinking and aware people in the USA have long been aware of this unfortunate characteristic of Americans in general.

[davidwparker]

3. CarlVK, welcome to DU!

You may not, but what I hope the new take on the movie will be to show the American herd that national health care is a good thing. I'm in the south and there is a lot of ignorance down here. When people see that national health care can lead to better, cheaper service, then the herd may get behind it.

[CarlVK]

4. Thanks David. Can you just imagine....

what the 300 billion plus dollars blown on this stupid war would have done toward a real nationalized health care system?

[Swamp Rat]

5. Or for our levees in New Orleans

Welcome to DU! :hi:

[EFerrari]

7. If this is going to be a movie about American exceptionalism and

the cult of the individual, I don't see how he can use Andy's story except as a counter example. Because we sure broke that mold, didn't we? :)

It'll be interesting to see what Moore decides to do. He's right that the movies get much better when he looks at the shooting and then rethinks his premise. That's what makes him a great director.