Can Movies Make a Difference?

June 14, 2007 — -- Michael Moore's new movie, "Sicko," a cinematic skewering of America's health care system, will open to the public Friday. But it's already playing to the body politic.

California legislators who are considering a state-run universal health care bill got a special screening of the movie earlier this week. That same day in Sacramento, Moore spoke at a rally of California nurses who marched off to their own screening of "Sicko."

Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury Department is investigating Moore for what became the movie's showpiece: Moore took ailing Sept. 11 rescue workers to Cuba to dramatize the notion that Cubans and even U.S. prisoners at Guantanamo get better health care than these Americans. In doing so, the government said he may have violated restrictions on travel to Cuba.

While it is unlikely that one movie can set the listing American health care system right, "Sicko" has already stirred controversy and raised questions about the impact it and other recent movies like it can have.

Moore himself clearly intends to use the movie as a lobbying tool as his appearance in Sacramento demonstrates. And on ABC's "Good Morning America" this week, he said the point of "Sicko" is that "it's the actual system itself that has to be upended."

Are the gadfly director's ambitions for his movie unrealistic? Jesse Drew, who teaches documentary film at the University of California Davis, argues that documentaries can alter policy and culture. He thinks "Sicko" will amplify the pressure on policymakers to reform health care.

"It will open to a mass audience," he said, "and it's not going to be lost on politicians. They know that many of their constituents will see these issues raised and there's going to be a link made that they have to deal with some of these issues."

If a link between a movie and institutional change sounds farfetched, consider "Super Size Me," the 2004 black comedy that documented Morgan Spurlock's 30-day McDonald's-only diet. As his physical and even mental health deteriorated, he interviewed nutrition and marketing experts about America's fast food fixation.