Acclaimed documentarian Fredrick Wiseman trains his notorious camera on the goings on of a hospital used primarily by people from a lower income bracket, and the results will likely sadden and horrify you.
Wiseman is always skilled at making you think he's being totally objective; it appears that he just turns his camera on and lets it run. However, he manages to construct a compelling indictment of how the poor are treated by the American medical industry and anyone with an ounce of warm blood in their veins will be enraged by what they see.
There are heartbreaking moments in this film, like doctors telling a woman she has only a limited amount of time to live and her complete unresponsiveness to the news. There are also moments that make you want to turn away from the screen, like the sight of a young man who's been given a purgative for a drug overdose spewing vomit all over the room, and then falling down in it. Indeed, much of this movie makes you feel guilty for watching at all. Shouldn't people's privacy and dignity be honored in situations like this? On the other hand, how would the majority of us know how the poor are treated if people like Wiseman didn't document it? The movie doesn't really pose and questions or answers, yet it manages to be completely compelling nonetheless. I saw it in a documentary film class and there was plenty of debate inspired by it.
Grade: A
