Moore lays down his weapons for Sicko

[Neil D]

LIAM LACEY

From Monday's Globe and Mail

May 21, 2007 at 4:13 AM EDT

Cannes, France — The Mike-and-Leo activist double-bill hit Cannes this weekend, as Michael Moore and Leonardo DiCaprio each unveiled new films they referred to as "calls to action."

Moore earned tears and cheers from a standing-room only crowd with his new documentary, Sicko, focusing on the failures of the American health care system. Separately, DiCaprio, the star of Titanic and The Departed, talked up his new documentary, The 11th Hour, on the failing health of the planet.

Moore's last two documentaries, Bowling for Columbine (2002) and Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) have become two of the most successful documentaries in history (Fahrenheit 9/11 earned $122-million U.S. in Canada and the United States) by tapping into a wave of dissatisfaction with the George Bush government.

Like Moore's previous films, Sicko blends moral indignation, poignant personal stories and caustic satire.

Judging by the audience reaction on Saturday, this should be his third hit in a row with Moore's profiles of those ignored by the system causing many in the audience to weep.

"Who are we?" Moore asks incredulously at one point, as he shows how a hospital pays a cab to dump a sick woman on the street outside a homeless shelter when she can no longer pay her bills. As outrageous as some of the abuses are, Moore's style is less confrontational than in his previous films. He acknowledged yesterday, at the press conference following the screening that he has grown "very tired of all the yelling and screaming and not getting anywhere.

"I'd rather put my lot down with the majority of Americans who know that something is wrong and want things to change."

Nonetheless, Moore faces a storm of potential legal problems for Sicko's climatic sequence, when he takes a group of ill 9/11 rescue workers, who have been denied insurance benefits, for treatment in Cuba. The Treasury Department has notified Moore that he may be investigated for breaking the U.S. trade and travel embargo against Cuba.

He said he has until tomorrow to explain himself.

On the advice of his lawyers, he managed to get a duplicate of the master copy of Sicko out of the United States in case the film, which is scheduled to open in June, is seized as evidence.

Moore said the state department has known about his Cuban visit since October of last year and he does not understand why the administration waited for 10 days before the festival to address the issue unless it was an attempt to derail the film's momentum: "I'm the one who's personally being investigated, and I'm the one who's personally liable for potential fines or jail and I don't take this lightly."

In Sicko, Moore initially attempts to take the volunteers to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, to see if they could get the same free health care the American government "provides to al-Qaeda." When that plan didn't work out, he took them to Cuba, where they were warmly received, given medical treatment and cheerfully greeted by fellow firefighters.

As in Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11, Moore uses Canada as an example of a more humane social system. When a Canadian reporter suggested the portrait of the Canadian medical system was unduly rosy, and wait times for care were long, Moore asked the reporter if he'd trade in his health card to join the American system.

"No," said the reporter promptly, earning a laugh from the audience.

"Right," Moore said. "When I look at Canada, the only long line I look at is that you get to live three years longer than we do. ... Why does a baby born into Toronto have a better chance of living to his first birthday than a baby in Detroit?

"I would hope you're a country that's not offended by a compliment."

From the racket of the Palais in downtown Cannes, the scene shifts to the verdant acres of Hotel du Cap, the luxury hotel in Antibes where some of the world's most expensive yachts can be seen floating nearby.

That's where Leonardo DiCaprio is busy making his activist stand with his new documentary, The 11th Hour, on the environmental crisis. Casually dressed in a blue shirt over a white T-shirt, DiCaprio in person suggests a long-lashed sleepy tomcat, though his message is urgent.

Unless measures are taken soon, time is running out for the human race is the theme of The 11th Hour, which DiCaprio produced and wrote with the filmmaking sister team of Nadia Conners and Leila Connners Petersen.

DiCaprio is aware he'll probably get flak for taking on the double role of activist actor, but he says he makes "no apologies" for using his fame for a cause he believes in.

"Truthfully - it all comes from a good place. I know I'm not an environmental scientist and not an expert. I take the position of being a concerned citizen of the world who's aware of environmental issues, to give the scientists and experts [an opportunity] to speak freely and openly to tell the truth."

Sitting at a cabana overlooking the water, the sister directors aren't concerned about teaching their message of moderation in a setting of consumer excess. Glamour, they know, earns attention, even for humble causes.

"It's not like sitting here is a bad thing," Nadia says. "Cannes could be a green event. Sure, we have these yachts behind us - but even they could run on bio-fuel."

Five years ago, the sisters met with DiCaprio who had admired a web film they had done for Woody Harrelson. The three of them made a couple of more Internet films together before they started working on the bigger project.

They know the team behind Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth and view the two documentaries as complementary. The Gore film told the global warming story; The 11th Hour is more about how human nature got us here.

Asked what it was like working with a major celebrity, Leila countered that he was "an ordinary person" who spent 100 hours working on the editing of the film.

Or, at least, he's as ordinary as one of the world's most famous celebrities can be. Asked if he had flown in by private jet, DiCaprio swallowed, offereda close-lipped smile and said, "Not this time." In fact, he said, the commercial airline lost his luggage. He suggests, indirectly, that such questions are probably not in the helpful spirit.

"I think there's a certain danger. ... Talking, for example, about how Al Gore flies or how he conducts his life, is just confusing the bigger issue where there is no real doubt about global warming. This isn't a film about one person but about encouraging our corporations and government to practice ecology in our everyday living standards."

Would he also consider getting the same message out in an environmentally-themed fictional movie?

"Believe me," he says. "I'm actively lookin

[Dr. Shane]

I fear the film may do more harm to the cause than good unless someone on the other radical extreme would jump on the bandwagon - like Ann Coulter or Rush Limbaugh. With Moore's left-wing extremism associated with the efforts, few conservatives are likely to support it. Moore's endorsement will likely serve to only make conservative (who outnumber liberals) less willing to support universal health care. Such an issue needs a unifying figure behind it so that the majority of liberals, moderates (like me) and conservatives accept it.

[lazarus]

Again I show my ignorance of American politics but I don't understand what the objection is to universal health care. Why are some people so vehemently against it? It makes no sense to me.

[Dr. Shane]

Fear of "Big Brother" and fear of change would be my best guesses. The Democrats have had it as part of their party platform since 1948 so I think many Republicans are against it just because it is part of the Democratic Party Platform.

I like the idea of the government just running an insurance program that everyone pays into. I don't like the idea of the government taking over private medical facilities.

[bevin]

I agree with Shane's assessment.

There are two independent reforms needed in the USA health care system

(a) How health care is delivered to the middle and upper classes, who can afford it, and who are not getting what they pay for

( How health care is delivered to those who can't afford it, and who are not getting what the govt pays for

The problems with (a) all center around liability

The problems with ( include liability, but also include the fear of people "living off the system" leading to not supplying them with cheap simple treatments early, leading to supplying them with expensive treatments too late.

ER's and 911 EMT's do not think they should be providing simple family doctoring and a taxi service - but

The law says

(a) an ambulance must transport someone who needs and wants treatment, and

( an ER can't turn away someone who needs immediate treatment

So the current law says that the most expensive way of delivering treatment is compulsory, and no other method is funded.

That is simply stupid.

/Bevin