Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist (doc.)

This is one of the most unforgettable films I have ever seen. If you enjoy truly challenging documentaries, check this one out. It is at once horrifying, poignant, hilarious, and fascinating.

It challenged some of my previously conceived notions about why people engage in certain aberrant behavior. The subject of this film will remain with you for days.

This is a film you can-- or should-- watch only once or twice in your lifetime, but it is a must-see and is among my top ten favorite documentaries.

1. The Thin Blue Line (Errol Morris)
2. Crumb (Terry Zwigoff)
3. The Lions of Darkness (Dereck & Beverly Joubert)
4. Sick (Kirby Dick)
5. When We Were Kings (Hackford/Gast)
6. Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred Leuchter, Jr. (Morris)
7. Capturing The Friedmans (Jarecki/Smerling)
8. Hoop Dreams (Steve James)
9. Coney Island (?)
10. American Movie (Chris Smith)

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I'll be sure to check it out.

Karl Childers, I think your wrong.

The subject of this film will be permanently engrained in my head!

One of the greatest documentaries I never want to see again.

I don't squirm easily, this made me squirm.

In the film, they show an excerpt from the Nine Inch Nails video Happiness In Slavery, that Bob Flanagan was in.

Have you seen it?

In one of the scenes in Sick, Bob's wife is talking about ideas for sado-masochism she had found in the movie, In The Realm Of The Senses.

Watch that one if you haven't already, very disturbing.

Wow. The only other movie to leave me this empty and sick was Requeim for a Dream. However this is in places, truly inspireing. He is being made to suffer by a condition to his body, so he fights back by tortureing his body. Maybe it was this battle that sustained him for so long (was'nt expected to live past 21). Anyway despite its content (which make no mistake, is sick imho), I too would recommend this to everyone over 18.