Must-see movie this summer: SiCKO

I've been waiting to find the trailer, and Michael Moore must have been keeping a lid on the trailer until after SiCKO premiered at Cannes.

Anyway, I finally found it, and it looks like a fantastic movie. The film was, by every account I've read, very well received at the Cannes Film Festival. I'm not out on much of a limb by predicting that SiCKO looks to be another Michael Moore success.

However, he's received a great deal of negative publicity from (surprise) Republicans, including this administration.

I find it ridiculous, moronic and absurd that this administration would waste a single man-hour on going after Moore for his trip to Cuba. But, that's what happens in the America of today - if you have a political opinion that differs with this administration, it's attack! attack! attack! I've already blogged about the Bush administration's witch hunt against Moore, so I won't continue that here.

Moore's Website reports that the government is not only pursuing him for his trip to Cuba, but also the 9-11 survivors that he took with him to Cuba:

The New York Post reported Sunday that the Bush administration, in addition to going after me for filming scenes in or near Cuba, may now go after the 9/11 rescue workers I took with me to get the medical care they were denied by our own government. I couldn't make up irony like this if I wanted to, and I will do whatever is necessary to defend the human right of these true American heroes to receive the medical attention they deserve.

(More on that Cuba trip in a minute.) It's not surprising at all to hear that the pharmaceutical industry (and the politicians they fund) are gearing up for a rebuttal against SiCKO.

According to Moore, he received copious amounts of whistle blower documents from many pharm employees:

We've also received word that the HMO and pharmaceutical industries are gearing up to fight SiCKO. We received so many great whistle blower letters while we were making the movie from employees of these companies. We'd like to hear from you again! Send us the internal memos and any other plans you run across at the company copying machine or Internet server. It will help to stay ahead of whatever they are up to, and it will also give us a chance for a bit of fun at the industry's expense.

I don't know what I'm looking forward to more - the movie, or Sean Hannity's and Rush Limbaugh's attack on Moore. Of course, they won't attack the film nearly as much as they will Moore himself.

In an interview with Time last week, Moore responded to critics who have treated his trip to Cuba like he dropped in on Osama bin Laden for tea:

Time: You also speak rhapsodically about the French and Cuban systems and travel to Cuba, where you interview Che Guevara's daughter. France, Cuba, Che. Are you going out of your way to annoy the right?

Moore: I give people more credit than the media and the political machine running this country do. The story line is: France, bad; France, cowards. What crime did France commit? We wouldn't have had this country without their support in the Revolution. They gave us that statue that sits out in New York Harbor. They responded immediately after 9/11. And they remain eternally grateful for what we did during World War II. As for Cuba, yes, when I've got a film crew there, they're going to show us their best. But there's a reason the World Health Organization ranks their health-care system [among] the best in the Third World and that people from Latin America come there for their health care. There's also a reason Cubans live on average a month longer than we do. I'm not trumpeting Castro or his regime. I just want to say to fellow Americans, "C'mon, we're the United States! If they can do this, we can do it."

I found Moore's words about France particularly poignant. The right has made great sport out of poking fun of and castigating France, all because they DARED disagree with us about our ill-fated foray into Iraq. Hmmm. Over four years after it started, who was more correct - France or Bush and Bill O'Reilly?

Michael Moore dares to make people think. (And sometimes, recoil. Look at that publicity photo! I may not sleep tonight.) I can't believe the audacity of Moore to possibly bring up the things that France has done for the U.S., including helping us during the Revolutionary War, the Statue of Liberty, etc.

Who has more credibility here - Bill O'Reilly and his phony France boycott, or Moore putting our country's relationship with France into historical context? Again, Moore is putting up facts against O'Lielly's rhetoric, such as "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" and another World War II joke that's about 50 years old.

Moore reasons that his film cuts across the political divide, and I believe he's right:

This film does cut across party lines. Everybody gets sick; everybody has had a problem with insurance or the prescription drugs they're supposed to be taking or an elderly parent who needs care. On the surface, it does seem that the only people who are going to be upset are the executives of insurance and pharmaceutical companies.

He couldn't be more right - the insurance and pharmaceutical industries will whine like babies, but that's because Moore is exposing them for the money grubbing, racketeering operations they are.

I'm counting the days until this film comes out.

Here's a small clip form the movie: