The documentary “The Bleeding Edge,” directed by Kirby Dick, investigates the secret truths behind the latest and greatest of medical technologies of our century. The film begins by talking about a new technology for permanent birth control called “Essure.” It ended up causing tens of thousands of women numerous medical issues that made it impossible to continue living healthy, normal lives. Other examples the documentary gave included metal hip replacements, a surgery robot, and a mesh used to hold female reproductive organs in place. The rest of the documentary talks about how these dangerous devices were able to get on the market. The biggest culprit of this is what’s known as a 501K. Companies are able to get a device instantly passed for public distribution without testing and approval by FDA scientists by comparing it with a device that is very similar to it already on the market. This creates a big problem when multiple “generations” of products go through this process. New products come to be based off of dangerous products already on the market. Even when the products go through FDA testing and approval, the test group is much too small and the time frame is much too short. When Essure went through this process, the length of the testing was only about a year, which is terribly too short for a product that’s meant to last a lifetime. Another reason so many dangerous devices are being sold to the public is because the FDA is loaded with people who used to work for medical technology companies and vise versa. People in the FDA are often bribed by companies and ex-FDA members in these companies are able to provide information on how to abuse the system.

​

I thoroughly enjoyed this documentary. Science and technology are both things I’ve always been interested in. The production value of the film was very high and resulted in great B-roll. The interviews always had the subject in focus and obeyed the rule of thirds. The lighting was always perfect in my eye, likely because of how high the budget was on this documentary. The music was always very dramatic, which was because of how truly dramatic the subject matter was. However, there were times when it was a little excessive. The pacing of the documentary was also a little off. They sometimes jumped around different topics in no particular order and times it was very fast paced and at others it was very slow. Overall, I really enjoyed the subject matter and most of the way it was presented. The high budget really paid off for the quality of the entire film.

​

I would recommend this documentary to pretty much anyone who would be mildly interested in the topic. People who are interested in capitalism, our government and bureaucracy, science, medicine, technology, and the future would all get something from this documentary. It’s also a little added bonus to learn a few of the medical procedures to avoid and how to prevent these catastrophes from happening to you. There were very few graphic moments, being a documentary about medical procedures and surgeries and all. It’s always good to be aware about these flaws in the way our country functions so that more people can band together in an attempt to fix them. The quality of the film was out of this world and I’d fully recommend watching it to anyone mildly interested in the topic.