4/5 Surprisingly touching.
  by Robert P. Beveridge (Cleveland, OH)
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. ****


5/5 Honest and Inspiring
  by Northern Girl (USA)
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.

4/5 sick, sad and heart warming
  by Ellizabeth Weissmann (torrance, ca United States)
i bought this last night having only heard of it, but having an active interest in the lifestyle.

i certainly got more then i had anticipated. the scenes are extremely graffic, some painfull.

but then you have the human interaction, and a guy just trying to deal with his illness. this really is his life, no holds barred. intimate, painfull.

even if you have no interest in the lifestyle, you will still grow to like bob, and be saddened at his death. a definate recomend for anyone who is in the life.

4/5 Perhaps the Most Apt Title For a Movie Ever
  by Danna F. Copeland (Planet "X")
Man, this movie makes for some truly harsh watching, yet Flanagan is a stunningly fascinating man. It's just hard to believe this is the same man shown in the clip of "The Steve Allen Show". Juuxtapose this with Bob getting... No, I'm not going to spoil it. But this is the movie for people who claim to have seen everything.
Needless to say, don't watch it with your kids.

3/5 Look between Bob's leg! He's sporting 'wood'!
  by Mondo Vendo (Detroit, Michigan USA)
If you are having trouble 'getting wood', just nail some on like Bob does.