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Festival Shootout - at the Cannes Film FestivalBy ALISSA SIMON
Three years after winning Cannes' top prize for "Fahrenheit 9/11," docu helmer and agent provocateur Michael Moore returns to the Croisette with more polemics as performance art in "Sicko," an entertaining and affecting dissection of the American health care industry that documents how it benefits the few at the expense of the many. Pic's tone alternates between comedy and outrage, as it compares the U.S system of care to other countries. Given Moore's celebrity and fan base, plus heightened awareness of pic resulting from the heated battle between left and right already ongoing in cyberspace, returns look to be extremely healthy.
Pic should also play well internationally, providing an eye-opening lesson for foreigners who may be inclined (like Moore's Canadian cousins) to take out insurance from their homeland before visiting the States.
Employing his trademark personal narration and David vs. Goliath approach, Moore enlivens what is, in essence, a depressing subject by wrapping it in irony and injecting levity wherever possible: a long list of health conditions that spark a reason for a person to be denied insurance coverage sail into deep space accompanied by the "Stars Wars" theme; a graph showing America's position in global health care as No. 38 -- just above Slovenia -- is followed by film footage of primitive operating conditions.
Pic explores why American health care came to be exploited for profit in the private sector rather than being a government paid, free-to-consumers service such as education, libraries, fire and police. Moore comes up with an archival audio recording of Richard Nixon from February 1971, praising Edgar Kaiser and his system using incentives for less medical care. The next day Nixon addresses the nation, proposing a new health care strategy that amounted to a less-per-patient expenditure to maximize profit.
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