“Sick” is one of the hardest movies you’ll ever watch, should you decide to do so. It’s hard because everything you see is real. All the pain, agony and death are real. Some of it is self-inflicted, while some of it is brought on by disease. Whether or not it is exploitive is up to you. The sub-title to the movie is “The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan Supermasochist.” You might think that this alone would describe to you what the film is about. Based on this assumption, you might even decide it’s not for you. But there’s more to the story than meets the eye. Where some may think it a film about pain, it’s more a film about survival. You see, Bob Flanagan suffered from Cystic Fibrosis. If you’re like me, you’ve heard of it, but have no idea what it actually does to you. Now I am aware that it causes every organ of your body to fill up with mucus. Sufferers eventually die of suffocation once it reaches the lungs. It is a lingering and painful death.

Flanagan lived to be 43 years old, and was one of the longest living survivors of the disease. But the way he chose to face it was much different than most. CF is a horribly painful disease, and he met it pain for pain. Immersing himself in a life a bondage, torture and self-mutilation, Flanagan found a way to embrace the pain in order to live with it.

The film, which is a documentary by the way, focuses on various points in his life, and allows viewers a somewhat voyeuristic look into the life of the man. At one point, he became somewhat of a performance artist, letting people pay to see some of his masochistic tendencies. The most shocking of which is the scene where he nails his… uhhh…extremity… to a board.

From start to finish, “Sick” is graphic and unflinching. Here we are even allowed to watch him in the final moments of his life as he slips from this mortal coil. As shocking and depraved as every other part of his life might seem, it is still tragic, and ultimately the most painful part of the movie to watch.

What I’m curious about with “Sick” is what the intentions of the director really were. I mentioned that some may find the movie to be exploitive, and in some ways I lean in that direction. Much of what we see is graphic, so in essence the film is more physical in nature than psychological. I’m not sure I really understood the ‘whys’ of his life.

The DVD does offer up a little more insight with its production commentary and deleted scenes, but again, these seem more self-indulgent on the part of the director. The most interesting of these is a follow-up feature on Sarah Doucette, which gives us an update on her battle with CF.

Directed by: Kirby Dick
Starring: Bob Flanagan, Sheree Rose
Extras: Production Commentary, Deleted Scenes, Sarah’s Sick Too, Interview with the Director, Performance Video
Studio: Lion’s Gate
Release Date: 9/23/2003
Region 1
MPAA Rating: NR
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We'll give Sick a B.