Customer Reviews

Sick [VHS]

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That's not only a theme of this movie, it's part of the lyrics that self-proclaimed (and with good reason)"super-masochist" Bob Flanagan cheerfully sings at a lecture/performance-he did a pretty witty re-working of the "Supercalafraga..."etc song from Mary Poppins. Did I mention he's wearing a little costume including a cape when he performs it?

Yep, Bob Flanagan had a pretty good sense of humor. That was one of the pleasant surprises of this movie. When I first heard about this movie, all I heard about was the hammer scene. I also had skimmed the RE-search book, and looking at some of the really extreme mutilations to areas of his body I would rather not name, I actually figured he was slightly disturbed. I'm pretty liberal and am of the opinion that what 2 consenting adults do, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else against their will, is their own business. I thought, because of his CF combined with this serious torture that he either was suicidal or hated himself. I also wondered about his relationship with his dominant/lover/partner of 15 years, Sheree Rose, hoping that it was loving and she wasn't just using him.

I was glad that this movie proved my pre-conceived notions wrong. This is a very intelligent, sane, witty, talented, likeable, and above all, VERY brave guy who happened to enjoy being beaten and tortured sexually. The movie explains-without preaching- that he actually gained strength from his activities. (according to statistics, most CF sufferers die in their 20's. He lived till his early 40's (actually a record)and says his sex life kept him going. He figured for one thing, he had nothing to lose. For another thing, CF is a very painful disease, and he chose to use S&M as a way to take control of his pain and disease. If you find this a hard idea to understand, or are curious, I highly recommend this movie. This has been said before, but I don't recommend it if you're squeamish. I'm jaded, but I had to look away a few times. Interestingly enough, what I found harder to watch than the notorious Hammer of Love was seeing BF racked with pain, coughing his lungs out, and (I don't think I'm spoiling anything here as the movie opens with Bob good-naturedly writing his own obituary) finally losing his battle with CF.

I also didn't think this movie would be so touching. Before the end, I realized he had a very loving relationship with Sheree. Not only are they sexually a perfect match, she is his best friend, soulmate, and care-giver, which is no mean feat. Face it, if you don't love someone, you're not going to be sticking around and helping them expel mucus from their lungs on a regular basis. When he starts losing his fight and finally goes to the hospital to die, the scenes of them together, with her gently telling him it's OK to leave her, are some of the most heart-breaking I've ever seen. This is one brave woman. Also, when she's not in her S&M gear, she could easily pass for an kindly elementary school teacher. It's a great contrast to see her tying him up and sticking needles in his groin in one scene, and later to see her rocking and knitting peacefully in another. I was also haunted by the scenes of him dying, the way he looked, and what he said, things that I've heard are very common last words such as, "I never thought this would really happen...this is so weird."

Is this a hard movie to watch? Even if graphic depictions of *very* sensitive areas of the body being nailed, pounded, and pierced don't faze you, I cannot imagine anyone who wouldn't be shaken or at least moved watching the later scenes of this man really, literally dying in front of the camera and your eyes. But I'm glad I saw it. My husband, however, loves documentaries, and even talked about seeing the movie when it was in limited release. I made the mistake of telling him about one of the little demonstrations, and now he refuses to see it, no matter how good it is (and he's sat through some pretty nasty stuff). If you're brave and feeling up to it, though, I highly recommend this movie. If you're easily (or even not-so-easily) grossed-out, but have an interest in the life and death of this man, then just cover your eyes during the graphic parts. And when you hear "Hammer of Love" start playing, you may want to leave the room for a minute or two.

It takes a certain kind of brave and twisted person to turn his life and body into an S & M performance piece. Bob Flanagan is both sick and brilliant. Flanagan survived cystic fibrosis until the age of forty-two - a very long time. He attributes this to constantly inflicting pain on himself relentlessly over the years. His dominatrix partner Sheree, helps him with is goals. The various scenes are sometimes spliced with dark humor and other times simply shown in their bleak gruesomeness. There is nothing that Bob and Sheree have not done to him to inflict pain in the most disgusting ways possible. It's an entirely different world and it takes a strong stomach to watch. Bob specializes in abusing his penis in ways unimaginable, including a scene with a hammer, a nail and a board - there is blood. The most amazing part of this documentary is when Bob and Sheree take this `performance art' to various museums in New York and Los Angeles. Bob allows himself to be raised by his feet, pierced, shackled and naked, high above the museum goers heads. It is disturbing. If you have an interest in the S & M/bondage world, you might find this interesting, but the scenes are so graphic and sometimes overwhelming in their intensity, it can be hard to stomach. This is a perplexing film.

SICK (Lions Gate) is a caustic, brilliant, funny, compassionate look at the life and death of comedian Bob Flanagan, who embraced S/M to manage the pain of cystic fibrosis. You will be shocked and amazed and moved to tears of laughter and sadness all at once. This edgy, arty, documentary record of a performance artist with something deeply meaningful to say about the ironic paradoxes of pain and pleasure, and the unexpected gift of life and certain death is not for everyone. So open your mind, see it, and be a better human.

This is far from a simple story.

I have a very small, miniscule glimpse of what it's like to live in pain on a daily basis. After watching this mans story I realize I have nothing to complain about and so much yet to experience and learn.

I will never want to participate in S&M sexual behavior. I'm just not programmed that way. I didn't, however shudder away from the sights on the screen while Sheree, Bob's lover and partner of 15 years, poked needles through the skin of his scrotum and while Bob hung by his ankles and choked on his disease. He had Cystic Fibrosis. The most difficult part of the documentary was watching him die. It is in your face death, and death of the worst kind. He drowned in his own phlegm and fluids.

But he lived so incredibly hard and his way, with what seemed like no apologies or regrets. This documentary shows a humor of the sickest and smartest kind.

I remember being a young girl, maybe 9 and watching a "Hallmark Movie of the Week". It was called Alex: The Life of a Child. I later found out it was actually based on a book written by her father, Frank Deford. I was so moved by this story and didn't understand at that age why someone as old as me had to die from having a cold. I didn't understand Cystic Fibrosis or what it actually did to the body, but I never forgot the movie or the disease and eventually read the book. When I read about SICK, the documentary, I had to get it. I'm morbid in my own way I suppose. I'm curious about things that a lot of people wouldn't dare read or watch or even talk about, so this was right up my alley. Had I known I was going to become so entranced by Bob I think I would have chosen not to watch. Only because you see this sick but Alive man die...as I said and It's something that is incredibly difficult to just put out of my mind.

Regardless, I am so moved and am so glad he had the courage to put his story on film for the world to see. I only wish more people had the courage to watch his life, with out judgment and with empathy.

First of all, this is a beautiful film in the way that Zwigoff's biopic Crumb is beautiful and sublime. Artists who live outloud like Bob Flanagan and Robert Crumb, who trample over boundaries, convention, and mores in their pursuit of personal and creative expression are to be understood and admired. This film is beautiful in how it behaves as art.

Yes, it's about a guy who hurts himself and lets others hurt him. Yes, it's got some harsh images and scenes in it and there are parts that will make you cringe, but to describe it as "beautiful" is not a run at irony. Calling it beautiful is the sum total of every aspect of "Sick" -- it's impact, his life, his images, and his intentions. With this film, Bob Flanagan achieved the holy grail of modern art: transforming a taboo act/attitude into a sublime and transcendant expression. Wow. An amazing feat, in life or death.

I hope this movie gets the attention it deserves, moreover, the attention that Bob Flanagan deserved. What a brave artist. I sure wish I'd paid more attention to him when I first heard of him and he was still present in the here and now.

Upon watching the movie sick, I came to an all out conclusion of all other movies I had seen in the past. They will never compare to Bob Flanagans true life experience of living beyond the expected life span of a human with CF. This man truly took his illness by the balls and showed the viewer that pain can be an issue that is manipulated in an entirely different way. I found it very interesting how Bob chose to be a slave to the woman he loves rather than a slave to his miserable disease. Those who dare; watch as Bob experiences life through the vice of pain. Those with weak stomaches, beware!

It's the story of Bob Flanagan, a 40 year old survivor of cystic fibrosis--a chronic lung disease with which few survive beyond their 20s. From an early age, he became masochistic to deal with the daily pain of CF. The film gives a bio with family interviews and chronicles the last few years of his life as a writer and artist. Witnessing the horrible progression of his disease, his loving and supportive family, long-time companion Sherree Rose, and his sometimes sick sense of humor far overshadows the S/M content. Watch this film, even if you have to close your eyes for a few scenes. I had read the RE/Search book, Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist, and found this film to be even more moving. I was surprised how emotional I got.

I bought this movie years ago after seeing this guy in the NIN video. It's easy to place judgement on what you see here because of the cover. But I have to be the first to say Don't Judge A Book By its Cover!!! What I found most moving in this film is how this man was born with a disease that was attacking him from the inside out and he wan't to feel empowered by taking his body to the extremes. Its really about the power of the spirit, and the mind over the matter. Most of all though is the relationship between he and his wife. From his Life to His Death. Others may look at it as disgusting. But to me it was a testament of trust and true love. She was with him every step of the way from beginning to the end and even after. What I learned from this movie is that I hope to have a love in my life that accepts me for who I am and all that I am. I believe we all deserve someone like that in our corner. Someone who doesn't want to change us but to celebrate us as we are, as we celebrate them as they are. Riveting, Beautiful, Amazing, and a Hidden little Gem of a movie about someones real life. Great work to the director.

There's some disturbing images in this film depending on where you're coming from, but an interesting and poignant film, nonetheless.

Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist (Kirby [director's name censored for Amazon consumption], 1997)

One of my least favorite movies of all time contains a line that I often quote: "there are some things the you see, and then you can't unsee them, you know?" (Joaquin Phoenix in 8MM.) Just going to show that even an awful film can have a moment of scripting genius. Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist, contains one of those things. Even if I never see it again, there's a particular scene in this film that will haunt me to my deathbed. It's not just the incredible act that's performed (and if you haven't seen the movie yet, when you stumble upon the scene in question, you will know it), but the way director Kirby [director's name censored for Amazon consumption] puts everything together: the film footage, the incredibly inappropriate music, the foreshadowing. (Flanagan mentions the scene in a few of his monologues earlier in the movie.) This is the third of Kirby [director's name censored for Amazon consumption]'s films I've seen, and the earliest of the three; I expected no less.

[director's name censored for Amazon consumption] here profiles Bob Flanagan, one of the longest-lived sufferers of cystic fibrosis. Flanagan handled his disease by controlling his body the only way he could: through masochism. We alternate scenes from various performance videos with interviews featuring, for the most part, Flanagan and his longtime partner/dominatrix, Sheree Rose. (About two thirds of the way through the film, a third major player enters the picture: Sarah Doucette, a Canadian sufferer of cystic fibrosis who meets Flanagan through the Make-a-Wish Foundation.) While it's tempting to see Flanagan solely through the lens of his being a masochist or a performance artist or whatever single facet of his personality one might find the most interesting (or vile, judging by some reactions to the movie), Kirby [director's name censored for Amazon consumption] presents a complex, hopelessly optimistic guy who's just getting by the best he can, until, as the title of the film warns us, he can't any more. Those final moments are touching in a way I can't explain; once again, [director's name censored for Amazon consumption] manages to put everything together (everything that happens after Flanagan's death is chronicled not by [director's name censored for Amazon consumption]'s filmmaking, but by photos Rose shot at the hospital and the morgue) in the most powerful way possible.

Fantastic, pure and simple. ****