In the last several years, medical care in the United States has been a hot topic among politicians. Escape Fire was likely born out of this concern: that doctors are paid by the number of patients seen and operations completed, rather than by how healthy they keep their patients. This of course leads one to wonder how often they've received unnecessary treatments, operations or prescriptions.
Escape Fire covers this topic and others and, what's more, does so in an engaging fashion. It does occasionally resort to simply hurling stats up onto the screen, which I consider lazy documentary filmmaking, but generally we learn about the broken system through researcher and doctor testimonies, broader anecdotes or colorful visual representations. My only real complaint is that so much time is used to tell us again and again that the current system is broken that examples of methods and possible changes seem few and far between in the film's closing chapters. Still, Escape Fire is a fascinating doc that concerns you "¦ whether you like it or not.
Escape Fire is competing in the US Documentary Competition.
About Stephen Davis
I owe this hobby/career to the one and only Stephanie Peterman who, while interning at Fox, told me that I had too many opinions and irrelevant information to keep it all bottled up inside. I survived my first rated R film, Alive, at the ripe age of 8, it took me months to grasp the fact that Julia Roberts actually died at the end of Steel Magnolias, and I might be the only person alive who actually enjoyed Sorority Row…for its comedic value of course. While my friends can drink you under the table, I can outwatch you when it comes iconic, yet horrid 80s films like Adventures in Babysitting and Troop Beverly Hills. I have no shame when it comes to what I like, and if you have a problem with that, then we’ll settle it on the racquetball court. I see too many movies to actually win any film trivia contest, so don’t waste your first pick on me. My friends rent movies from my bookcase shelves, and one day I do plan to start charging. I long to live in LA, where my movie obsession will actually help me fit in, but for now I am content with my home in Austin. I prefer indies to blockbusters, Longhorns to Sooners and Halloween to Friday the 13th. I miss the classics, as well as John Ritter, and I hope to one day sit down and interview the amazing Kate Winslet.
