The Widowmaker (2015) User Reviews

A great and important documentary

[ksmail-1 · 9/10 · 29 July 2016]

I've had this movie on my watchlist for a while and just now got around to watching it, and boy am I glad that I did.

This was really a fascinating and rich documentary. It is about medical industry technologies in relation to heart attacks and the developments that have been made the past 20 years, specifically a few types of technologies.

Helpful technologies are suppressed, due to a mixture of ignorance, greed, and blind faith in old knowledge among those wielding the power of change in the medical community.

Luckily over the years these new forms of heart attack prevention and treatments have been widely accepted and adopted, due to various occurrences which are described in the movie.

At times the movie will present you with real 911 calls, to solidify the chilling reality of these sudden and deadly heart attacks that can change your life forever, or even worse, take it away.

One peeve that I had with the movie was that it didn't go into details on what kind of nutrition would be helpful in preventing heart attacks. The food you consume and choose to fuel your body with definitely plays a large role in the occurrences, so it was a shame to not hear anything about it. I understand of course that the movie would like to focus on the story of these medical technologies, but still, they could have dedicated a few minutes to nutrition in my opinion.

I saw another review here stating that the movie was highly opposed to sterns, but I did not get that impression at all. Rather I think it was being critical of the fact that a small amount of people were making incredibly large sums of money due to the invention and the operation of inserting them. The review I am referring to is actually incredibly suspect and strangely negative, which makes me think of one of the ignorant and misled persons interviewed in the movie. The author of that review actually created his/her account exactly 11 months ago when the review was written, and has not made any reviews since then... Not very surprising.

The WidowMaker is a Must-See Movie & Might SAVE YOUR LIFE

[gmezo-99373 · 10/10 · 20 July 2015]

"The WidowMaker" is a Must-See Documentary for every adult. You need to understand the politics and greed involved in the Cardiology and Heart Care Industry that consists of Cardiologists, Invasive Cardiologists, Heart Surgeons, Hospitals, Stent Makers and BIG PHARMA. Heart Disease fuels a MAJOR aspect of our health care system. An extremely accurate 20-second non-invasive test done by a low-dose CT machine known as the CAC Score is threatening the profits of the hospitals and cardiologists......as it costs very little and can find that up to 50% of heart procedures ($$$) are not actually needed at all. Yet, heart disease kills nearly 35% of all of us and we want to trust our "doctors" who have "nothing-but-the-best-in-mind-for-us" lol. But lining thir pockets with gold appears to be the motivation.

Heart Disease is a big-money industry and the power players are polarized toward keeping the status-quo and the billions of profits. The proponents of the CAC Score feel that the existing cardiology mafia-esque power-cadre should change to save peoples lives because it's the right thing to do.......herein lies the crux....they don't want to give up the money. There are Non-invasive options and alternatives today instead of surgery. Watch "The WidowMaker" on NETFLIX TODAY!!!

Very Good Information

[kathiehansen · 10/10 · 20 July 2015]

Very eye opening and not to be missed! Gives you a good idea of what tests to ask for and who to see. The one thing I found weird was they showed all these really rich cardiologists who had extremely bad teeth. I have read where your teeth can have a big impact on heart health. I have had the scan already and will again. I recommend it everyone. Do not stick your head in the sand and become frightened at getting info that could save your life. I hope this message reaches a lot of people who need it. You can really see where decisions about our lives are made by doctors who are really asses and act like it's amusing! They say a stent is no more better than diet and exercise....when someone is laying on the table and gets a stent that opens his artery immediately. Like every thing else in life, money seems to be the big motivation in treatments getting the go ahead or not. Money and hubris . One or two people can influence a whole country as far as what tests will be paid for by insurance.

This movie, though impressive, is also impressively misleading

[robert-89836 · 14 August 2017]

I was one of the first researchers who proposed the use of coronary artery calcification to predict probability of heart attacks (calcium screening) and I played a major part in the development and testing of the technologies used for calcium screening. The producers of this film solicited my participation in their planned documentary and I declined participation.

When I was invited to participate, I was told by the interviewing staff member from the Widowmaker production team that the film was largely funded by one donor who was, for personal reasons, totally sold on the value of calcium screening as a way to detect those persons susceptible to heart attacks. It was obvious that this "documentary" film would not be an accurate portrayal of the history of the development of this technology nor would it represent anything like objective journalism regarding the test's actual value.

After viewing the film, I know I made the correct decision to not participate.

The film portrays a non-existent intellectual and economic battle between those who propose prevention of heart disease and those who propose intervention for those already suffering from heart disease. It appears almost as if these two "sides" are fighting each other; it seems from the film that one side wants to prevent heart attacks and deprive the other from the business in treating them and the intervention side is against prevention in order to get more business. This is a convenient, though inaccurate and unfair way to explain why many, including myself, who saw real value in calcium screening did not and still do not recommend its universal use for all those who might be worried about their risk of a heart attack.

Calcium screening is accepted by the medical community as a way to determine risk and to focus preventive interventions (like cholesterol lowering) on those at high risk for heart attacks. It is not accepted as a way to detect latent heart disease in everybody.

This approach of screening to determine risk is based on scientific evidence.

Those doctors who specialize in treating heart attacks and heart disease with interventions are not at all opposed to coronary calcium screening when used in this scientifically proved way.

Robert Detrano MD PhD

Incredibly inaccurate and misleading

[saloliveri · 2/10 · 30 July 2015]

This documentary is a joke. The writer obviously has little to no medical knowledge and did not have competent advisors for this film. Even the title itself is inaccurate; the "widowmaker" is not the left anterior descending artery (LAD), it is the left main coronary artery. Not only that, the portion that describes stent placement first talks about blockages in the coronary artery, and then proceeds to say the stent is deployed in a vein. Really?!?! This is Cardiology 101 and they blew it.

The documentary also utilizes fear mongering tactics with its anecdotes about individuals who had a heart attack or whose family member died from one. While tragic, these anecdotes mean nothing with regards to medical or scientific evidence. It is akin to someone having a bad experience at a restaurant and posting a terrible review online, when there are hundreds of customers who have an excellent experience. People like to focus on the negative – just watch the news.

The most glaring problem is the direct comparison of coronary calcium scoring to stenting. This is like comparing apples to oranges. Calcium scoring is a screening tool that is used to determine risk factors and the possible need to diagnostic coronary angiography. It is not a therapeutic intervention! In fact, the documentary fails to even mention the role of diagnostic coronary angiography as a precursor to stenting. It would lead you to believe that unless you undergo calcium scoring, you will have a heart attack and be one of the millions who die each year from heart disease. If a person gets a "heart scan" and it shows a significant calcium burden, the patient will likely be referred for diagnostic coronary angiography. This is the definitive diagnostic test for coronary artery disease. No angiography = no stent. It's as simple as that.

The part about lifestyle modification and optimal medical therapy and its superiority to stenting is also misleading. Medicine and a healthy lifestyle can slow the progression of existing disease and delay the onset of heart disease in many people, but again we are comparing apples to oranges. Stents are for severe, existing coronary lesions (blockages). They do not prevent heart disease. In fact, if someone has a stent that was not properly deployed or not on the proper medications after the stent, they are at an increased risk for a heart attack due to sub-acute thrombosis.

I could go on about the problems with this documentary, but I think this gets the point across. This documentary is not an accurate picture of reality. It is heavily biased against stenting because the writer is ignorant of the facts and/or chose to omit important information.

The parts about the development of calcium scoring and stents were interesting, however. That is about the only redeeming part.

What???

[noellelynn · 4/10 · 20 July 2015]

I'm sure this film is full of great advice to people about not ignoring heart symptoms,. getting regular check ups on your heart, etc. The thing is, the movie is inaccurate, right from the beginning.

I am 37. I have ZERO heart disease. I have normal BP, HDL, LDL, and Triglycerides. I had a LAD (Widowmaker) heart attack one morning at work. It was NOT preventable. There was NOTHING I could have done to prevent it. "Totally and 100% preventable" is said more than 10 times in the first 5 minutes of this film, therefore, I turned it off (sadly) because it's not accurate.

Again, I had a LAD (Widowmaker) Heart Attack at 37, and it WAS NOT preventable in any way.

If you are a person aged 20-59, and have a heart, you are at risk for a heart attack.

Get educated, and for God's sake, be more responsible with your words (to all the doctors making false statements in this film). Google SCAD Heart Attack, and get educated.