Michael Moore
Sicko

We shouldn't generally worry too much about the problems that affect other countries, right? And in fact, a bit, that's how it is considering that this "Sicko" (2007), yet another example of a documentary film denouncing by Michael Moore, grossed ONLY 1 million euros in Italy, behind The Prestige and Hostel 2, just to say...
Every good Italian must have thought "why should I care about the bad healthcare in America?" when instead, with careful examination, they could have made, with the necessary adjustments, a PERFECTLY applicable discourse even here.

In America, this latest act of denunciation disguised as farce, faced many obstacles so much so that the director had to mislead his detractors by storing the original footage masters in Canada and various locations to avoid boycott by the health companies and insurance companies represented by the stars and stripes.
A film, like his previous works "Bowling for Columbine" from 2002 and "Fahrenheit 9/11" from 2004, filled with bitter sarcasm, macabre humor, and loads of controversy scattered here and there, which created a real "stream" of films constructed with the same criterion (just think of the Italian "Viva Zapatero" by Guzzanti or the para-ecologist documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" promoted and sponsored by Al Gore).

America, which many consider the Land of Toys, the Promised Land, the Land of Opportunities, is in fact ranked 37th in terms of health system efficiency (just above Slovenia, just to say!), but the SERIOUS fact that Moore denounces is that almost 50 million citizens CANNOT afford to pay for healthcare costs and thus access all the services to which, theoretically, they would be entitled. This considering the fact that very few can afford to pay the Insurance Companies that would subsequently cover all the necessary medical expenses.
Either you pay, or you're on your own, basically! The classic dog biting its own tail, in essence.

This is why people mortgage their homes, pawn family jewels, or sell a kidney if necessary to cover these insurance expenses, in a frantic and truly paroxysmal race: FALL ILL to pay the costs to HEAL!
Ohh, it's not that we in Italy don't have our fair share of issues, huh?... do we want to talk about our healthcare mess? about endless waiting lists? Nepotism in hospital careers? Constant pressure for recommendations to beg for a specialist visit in a few days "just know so and so and say you're sent by Tom"? The continuous cuts by the Government to Healthcare? Doctors who clock in then disappear for days, only to show up to collect their paycheck at the end of the month? Billion-dollar facilities set up and abandoned within a few months? The black market of equipment paid, repaid at inflated prices, and overpriced, dividing the profits among a tight-knit circle of suppliers?
Let's draw a veil of mercy over it; it's better.

In short, this from Michael Moore is certainly not a film of escape or something for you to relax and have fun with but, like our National Grillo, wants to provoke and ring an alarm bell to stimulate public opinion on yet another case of shameful and worrying injustice. Like Beppe Grillo, in fact, Moore informs by filtering healthy irony and intelligent provocation to expose the contradictions of the American Healthcare System. A film, therefore, of commitment and fun YES but which, however, in the long run also becomes boring because the THESIS is pursued and promulgated in every way, with no escape and with little contradiction so much so that in the end it becomes almost "indigestible".
The topic "American Healthcare," given our parochialism that often doesn't let us see beyond our noses, will find its due time here with us, but I suppose that, in the long run and without waiting too long, sooner or later it will find fertile ground here too. It will happen that a Guzzanti, a Grillo, or any "troublemaker" armed with a camera and some ideas, will start to expose some new Italian Mess by demolishing the many walls of silence erected to protect a thousand and more secrets that plague our beloved BelPaese.

Do you think there aren't enough cases to bring to light? Well... Italy is full of them for that matter, and we all know them, more or less; rather: do you think any such film would find any Distributor in our cinemas? And do you think Italians would then go to watch such a film? Or would they rather numb themselves and act like an ostrich with its head in the sand, shooting off holiday films by Boldi & DeSica with the Relatives at Christmas, which are loudly funny and not challenging?

You know the answer without needing me to spoon-feed it to you, right, old foxes?