Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare

PG-13

Released Oct 5, 2012

1h 39m

Documentary

List

78%

23 Reviews

Tomatometer

92%

500+ Ratings

Audience Score

Filmmakers Susan Froemke and Matthew Heineman use personal stories and expert analysis to diagnose serious problems in the U.S. healthcare system.

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Bilge Ebiri

Spirituality & Health

The approach is multipronged, but luckily, Escape Fire doesn't lose any of its urgency or power as a result.

Mar 25, 2020

Full Review

Frank Scheck

Hollywood Reporter

There's no escaping the fact that the sheer profusion of similarly-themed efforts in recent years reduces their individual impact.

Oct 5, 2012

Full Review

Ann Hornaday

Washington Post

Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke's sobering, often infuriating documentary about medical care in 21st-century America.

Rated: 3/4

Oct 5, 2012

Full Review

Kelly Jane Torrance

Washington Examiner

There's no question the American health care system is broken. But it's not for the reasons directors Susan Froemke and Matthew Heineman posit.

Rated: 0/4

Dec 20, 2018

Full Review

Robert Denerstein

Movie Habit

A more sweeping look at the assumptions behind American healthcare

Nov 5, 2012

Full Review

Brent Simon

Shockya.com

Suffers from some jumbled editing, but has the benefit of enormously sympathetic subjects, and rather persuasively suggests a collective societal myopia on the subject of health care.

Rated: B

Oct 8, 2012

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randall k

I wish everybody in the USA would watch this.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare has the power to enlighten and frighten. It's a compelling call to action for a nation that's wasting its potential. It's arguments are based on seemingly irrefutable facts and figures, yet it's not quite a home run-more like a ground rule double. Its thesis is like the plot of Prometheus. You see where it wants to go, but the path there is strewn with bumps and holes. Yes, our health care system is problematic-in fact, "problematic" is a massive understatement. And the film hammers that home with precision. However, it flubs the landing just a little by not offering a solution worthy of the problem. Eating right, exercising, stress relief-all good things. But can these practices change government policy on corn subsidization? Or a fast food company's pricing model? Probably not-at least not in any reasonable amount of time. But Escape Fire is well-intentioned and features brilliant men and women speaking truth to power. Taken in context, it's rather convincing. Aren't convinced bacon and eggs for breakfast every day is dangerous? Escape Fire has a few people you ought to meet. Think meditation and acupuncture are hippy-dippy nonsense? Think again. Directors Susan Frömke and Matthew Heineman, along with the experts they call upon, back up their claims with solid facts, but the claims feel flimsy. I have a thousand questions I'd like to ask some of these individuals, and as my surrogate, Frömke, Heineman, and their filmmaking team let me down. The film's other problem is its title. "Escape Fire" refers to the notion that the solution to an overwhelming problem might be right in front of your face. A crew of firefighters are trapped on the side of a mountain when its leader strikes a match and starts burning the ground around him. The men and women around him panic, and most of them ultimately parish, but the captain knew the flames would sail past him in search of more oxygen. It's a clever metaphor, but the way the film references it is overdone and silly. The healthcare problem, at least as its described in Escape Fire, has many facets, and none is more successfully tackled in this documentary than military healthcare-particularly as it relates to a soldier's dependency on prescription drugs. We follow a sergeant in the Army who's being evacuated after taking a bullet in the Korengal Valley (made famous in the superb 2010 documentary Restrepo). He's on so many drugs for his legs, as well as PTSD (most of the men he fought with perished). At one point, we see him on the evac helicopter actually fall over he's so high on morphine. It's disturbing and sad, especially as we get to know him more. Unlike many of his fellow soldiers, he's able to motivate himself to kick the habit, and what get him to do so is acupuncture-a technique this self-described hick is incredibly skeptical of at first. The results win him over; When he has these little pins in his ear, he's damn near invincible. It's a moving comeback from a damaged hero, and it's easily this film's strongest thread. Escape Fire is full of other honest and admirable individuals with compelling personal stories-like a woman who's had dozens of stints put in before the age of 40 and a doctor who's forced to float from practice to practice because she likes to educate and spend time with her patients. This personal touch, as well as the impressive scope of the picture, make Escape Fire recommendable. It's not, however, among the year's best documentaries; It's merely good. It's searching for an answer that might not be there, and the answers it ultimately poses are nothing but paper tigers. http://www.johnlikesmovies.com/escape-fire-the-fight-to-rescue-american-healthcare/

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/10/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Fantastic movie on American health and the future to come.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/28/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Excellent, not just a big idealistic view but actual examples of full scale successful implementation of the right way to do healthcare.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/16/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Great film on the health care system and how we can change it for the better.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/16/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Interesting, but not that much new, lots of obvious things, and the audience that sees it won't be the audience that needs to learn what it's teaching.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/07/23

Full Review

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Susan Froemke

Director

Matthew Heineman

Director

Dr. Andrew Weil

Actor

Dean Ornish

Actor

Wendell Potter

Actor

Elizabeth Blackburn

Actor

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Synopsis

Filmmakers Susan Froemke and Matthew Heineman use personal stories and expert analysis to diagnose serious problems in the U.S. healthcare system.

Director: Susan Froemke, Matthew Heineman
Producer: Doug Scott
Distributor: Roadside Attractions
Production Co: Aisle C Productions, Our Time Projects
Rating: PG-13 (Some Thematic Material)
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 5, 2012, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 27, 2014
Box Office (Gross USA): $97.3K
Runtime: 1h 39m

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