Most of the people in Sicko who suffer at the hands of HMOs -- losing jobs, homes, limbs, loved ones and even their own lives -- have one thing in common: They belong to the middle-to-lower-class tax bracket that Moore has always favored in his films. The filmmaker's emphasis on the poor and disenfranchised has led some critics to brand him a socialist, or even an outright communist (a point he addresses squarely in Sicko when he visits the grave of Karl Marx). When you bring up this topic, Moore sighs, audibly weary of having to defend his stance.

''I'm neither. I'm a Christian,'' he counters. ``Look, you're never going to convince people who think that narrowly. My movies are not for simple minds. They're for people who want to think and question and operate from a place of conscience, people who know the difference between right and wrong. If you don't fall into those categories, you probably shouldn't be at my movies.''

TRUE TO HIS ROOTS

Moore's roots as a native of the working-class Flint, Mich., and his allegiance to his hometown are an integral component of his public persona. But despite the great financial success his films have earned him, Moore says it is that connection to his past that continues to motivate him as an artist -- and films like Sicko are the proof.

''The nuns I had in school taught me certain lessons -- that I'd be judged by how I treat the least among us, that a rich man would have a harder time getting into heaven than a camel passing through the eye of a needle -- that I have never forgotten,'' Moore says with conviction in his voice. ``I've seen too many people forget where they came from, and I'd never do that. I would never break faith with the people who first came to see Roger and Me [his first film]: I was making $98 a week back then, and I've never forgotten how those people helped change my life. The more successful I become, the more I feel it's incumbent on me to make movies that give a voice to people who don't have a voice.''

But Moore knows the secret to his success is not the message of his movies, but the movies themselves. No matter how much you might disagree with Moore -- no matter how much you think he twists facts or cheats the truth or showboats -- there's no denying his films are, at their core, supremely entertaining.

And Sicko is no exception. ''That's always the most important thing to me,'' he says. ``I'm a filmmaker setting out to make an entertaining film so you can go out and have an entertaining night at the movies. Everything else comes second.''