MIT Lecture Series Committee

Rated PG-13
113 minutes

Sicko (2007)

The November 9 showings of this film are FREE to the MIT Community - sponsored by the Technology and Culture Forum, and the Large Events Fund. Join us after the 7pm show on November 9 for a special talk by STS Professor David Jones, who will discuss the critical reception of Sicko, situating the film in current and ongoing policy debates about national healthcare.

America's most incendiary filmmaker, Michael Moore, returned in 2007 with this health-care-industry exposé. SICKO tackles material as controversial as the topics explored in Moore's other films, yet does so in a way that places the focus on ordinary Americans affected by the nation's health-care crisis. After providing some historical background on how our nation's medical care system became so ravaged and unfair, Moore interviews a series of individuals and families who have had their lives all but destroyed by the denial of care in the service of profit. While there are two sides to the gun-control debate and even a legitimate discourse for how to best wage the war on terror, it's simply impossible to justify how a baby girl can wind up dead because her mother's health insurance wasn't accepted at a nearby hospital. Moore smartly allows this and other stories to be told with little or no interference, conjuring strong feelings of empathy, rage, and deep sadness. [www.rottentomatoes.com]

A persuasive piece of propaganda because it is as entertaining and funny as it is heart-rending and disturbing.
      -- Jeffrey Westhoff, Northwest Herald. Read this review.