The Truth About Michael Moore's "Sicko"

(originally published at the now-defunct www.poweredbymovies.com)

Michael Moore is a publicity whore. Usually. When he won the Oscar for Bowling for Columbine, he took his time onstage to shame the president’s involvement in Iraq, exclaiming, “How dare you, Mr. Bush.” For his follow-up film Fahrenheit 9/11 in 2004, he tried desperately to arrange a screening of the film at the White House, to little avail. Point is, he got his name out there in as many ways as possible, and his films star pretty much him and only him, with the facts supporting characters. This is not meant to be a criticism of Mr. Moore, because that’s beside the point.

What is the point is that his newest film Sicko, an expose on the corruption and greed of the American health care industry, is a cry for the U.S. to be more like Canada, Denmark, Cuba. Yes, Cuba. Word has it is that Mr. Moore is rarely seen in this film, finally letting his subjects speak for themselves. It’s a work that even Fox News has described as important and mature.

But let’s look at that poster again. Notice the letters. The font. Now check this out.


Notice anything similar? Even down to the lowercase “i,” that is almost exactly the same font. Coincidence? Absolutely not.

Very little has really been said about the content of Sicko other than the general ideas. If anything, it was only really controversial before it was even made. When American HMOs got wind of the subject of the film, they sent out memos threatening termination to any employee who talked to him. More recently, Moore was put in some hot water when the government found he had transported people to Cuba for the film, and transport from the U.S. to Cuba is strictly forbidden. That’s pretty much all we know.

Here’s what they’re not telling you, and it lies in the devious little poster “coincidence.”

Michael Moore is actually a robot.

Let’s look as the Three Laws of Robotics, created by Isaac Asimov who wrote the original story of I, Robot.

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Now, in the Will Smith/Alex Proyas film version of I, Robot, a robot technician and philosopher is murdered and said death is investigated by Detective Spooner (Smith). He has a grudge against robots as a result of a terrible accident earlier in his life when an autobot saved the life of Spooner and not that of a young girl, assessing that Spooner had a higher percentage chance of living. Needless to say, he is out to prove that a robot killed the technician, but is met with opposition from the government, the robot company and the police force who direct his attention to the Three Laws. Of course a robot wouldn’t harm its master.

Ah, but there’s another Law Asimov created after the initial stories, known as the Zeroth Law.

“A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.”

By the end of the film, it turns out that robots were in fact the culprit of many deaths and throughout the film responsible for the multiple attacks on Spooner’s life. It is revealed that their murders actually do follow the Laws, most importantly the Zeroth Law. They have been attempting to control mankind by weeding out the bad people and enslaving the rest, protecting humanity from itself. Man’s worst enemy is man, and for the robots to follow their Laws, to disallow humanity to come to harm, they would be following their programming 100%.

Now back to Moore. He is a political documentarian in the biggest way. His movies are loud, brash and controversial, and yet are very important and should be seen by pretty much everybody. He angered many people with his films, especially the last two, but he did so with a reason. Everyone talked about him, with love, with hatred, but never indifference. People know he has something to say and listen.

With Sicko, though, he doesn’t need the publicity. He doesn’t need to be featured in every frame of the film. It’s not necessary. Instead, he has riled us up, much like how the robots enslaved the humans of future Chicago, until we’re ready to pay attention. Roger & Me, The Awful Truth, Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, they were all just bait. Now he finally has something to say that everyone can get behind at this stage in American political and social thought: that our healthcare system needs reformation and needs it now. He has programmed us into watching a film that could very well help humanity as a whole (at least in the United States). He is following the 3 Laws of Robotics, and the Zeroth one as well, and is not allowing us to come to harm.

You see those skeletons surrounding Moore in the poster? They were the necessary casualties in order to get the movie made. Like the robot technician/philosopher. It’s exactly the same.