The Girl from Flanders (1956)

Documentary report

Sicko

The topic of the documentary Sicko is the way America organizes its healthcare-insurance policy.

I picked this documentary because America’s ways of handling things has always fascinated me – not in a very good way – and so I was keen to learn more about this extraordinary aspect from the American culture.

Before I watched this documentary, I was already educated on this topic. In my opinion, the American healthcare system is ridiculous and unfair. This has been my opinion ever since I got introduced to this topic, so the documentary has not changed it. I would say it made me more educated on the American way of treating people who need medical care, though.

The tone is both objective and subjective. It is objective because the whole thing is based on true stories from people all across America. Documents and e-mails from insurance companies are shown in the documentary, which, for me, count as proof that the information that is being told is legit. Also, Moore draws a lot of comparisons between other countries and does research on how things are organized there. It is also subjective, because a lot of people that are in the documentary have their own opinion on the healthcare system. For example, people who used to work for insurance-companies have been interviewed for the documentary and they clearly state their opinion on how poor they find the policy.

Creative exercise 6

What I am really not happy to see in the Sicko is the fact that the maker didn’t really include less wealthy people in his documentary. At a certain moment he interviewed an ‘average’ French couple. The couple lived in a very large home, had no kids, no pets and earned €8.000 a month together. This is not at all what I would call an average family. I also really didn’t like how he belittled the €8.000 salary and the big home since that’s a whole lot of money and a very nice, large house in my opinion. The third thing I didn’t like was the lack of people of colour and women. The only time I saw non-white people was during the part they filmed in Cuba and a couple of the doctors were black. I’ve also only seen about three women being interviewed, which is a tiny amount compared to the number of men being interviewed. I would have liked a little more variation.

A thing I liked was the fact that the maker, most of the other people in Sicko and I are basically on the same line when it comes to the American healthcare system. Another thing I liked was the large amount of direct interviews. I enjoyed the fact that not only one person was speaking constantly, but multiple people were talking. The last thing I was very fond of is the purpose of the documentary. Michael Moore made it to show the world how it works in America and to spread awareness. I think that’s a very important thing to do.