Sicko: Rallying Point for the People or Tempest in a Teapot?

The marketing machine for Michael Moore's Sicko is revving up for its June 29th release, Business Week points out, and Big Pharma is bracing for the latest salvo from the polemic filmmaker behind Bowling for Columbine and Farenheit 9/11. The trick for ticket sales is going to be making people feel impassioned about the issue. Tomorrow, Moore will appear on Oprah, and then do the late-night circuit with Letterman and Leno. While many political candidates including Hillary Clinton, Barrack Obama, John Edwards and Arnold Schwarzenegger are currently talking up their own ideas for health-care reform, Business Week wonders if the documentary, and the issue overall, will actually mean much to the masses:

There are plenty who are skeptical that health care is headed for substantial reform, despite the efforts of Moore and others. "It won't happen," says Berkeley professor John Ellwood, co-director of the Robert Wood Johnson Scholars in Health Policy Research Program. He cites a recent New York Times/CBS poll that states most folks are generally satisfied with their health care. "Too many people like their doctor and the care that they're getting," he says. "There's no groundswell of protest."

I have to agree. American health care is in a sad state, and I'll vote for change when the time comes, but for now, I don't want to see a movie about it. With Farenheit, Moore tapped into some kind of collective outrage and it felt satisfying to see the incompetence of the Bush administration exposed on screen. But with Sicko, I feel like I already know what happens in the movie without even watching it.