I recently watched Michael Moore‘s Sicko and was very impressed by the effort put into the documentary. I wasn’t a fan of Moore’s previous work in Fahrenheit 9/11 or Bowling for Columbine, but Sicko does a great job of presenting the case for change in the US health care industry. Moore uses his skill very effectively to showcase the hardships caused by the current system on normal, everyday Americans, and in the end one is left almost with a feeling of shame at what has been donein the name of the almighty dollar. The film accomplishes its goal of making people aware of the need for change.

While the movie presents a strong message, and is accompanied by Moore’s humorous wit as comedic relief. This is almost a necessary counterpoint to the gravity of the situations he discusses – many of them are simply heartbreaking. Moore’s skill in using these, and his effective segues between scenes are key to making this documentary, which is almost two hours long, an engaging experience.

As a Canadian, I can tell say that the typical Canadian’s viewpoint is well-represented in the movie, and there is no hyperbole here. We truly do take pride in our system, and for us, it would be not only weird but unheard of to have to decide which finger to re-attach after a devastating injury, based on the cost of the operation. As Moore points out, this is reality of quite a few people in the US, who simply have no recourse for these sorts of non-life threatening injuries.

I was most impressed, however, with Moore’s vociferous defense of his movie on CNN, after they aired a piece somewhat critical of it, in order to present an opposing view. (They aired the piece just before they interviewed him) Moore quickly posted a rebuttal of the piece, and stood by his facts. The next day, he appeared on Larry King Live to debate these points with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon and journalist for CNN. The exchanges were heated, and neither side backed down. Moore appeared to declare war on CNN, perhaps prompting CNN to backdown somewhat.

Whatever you think of Moore, you have to give credit to someone who stands by their position and spends so much time to elaborate their position. He certainly commands respect from CNN, if they’re willing to response to each of his points in a rebuttal of Moore’s rebuttal. Keep an open mind, but definitely go and see this movie, if only to become more aware of the situation.