You Don't Know Jack

I am a sad excuse for a blogger by the way, seeing as how I watched this movie weeks ago. Nonetheless!

"Is this the face of a killer?", is the tagline for the film You Don't Know Jack. Al Pacino's face as the well known "Doctor of Death", Jack Kevorkian, adorns the poster for this informative (and long) biopic.

I only knew the basics about infamous Kevorkian prior to this film; He assisted his patients in ending their lives, was very controversial, and ended up in jail for going too far. You Don't Know Jack starts with Kevorkian as an unemployed doctor who believes if a person has little to no quality of life, and are living in suffering then they have a right to die. Kevorkian's sister, Margot Janus (Vaccaro) and his best friend and former colleague Neal Nicol (Goodman) are his two main supporters of the idea.

It starts with Kevorkian interviewing people that feel they are ready for end. Most with diseases that were rapidly on the decline and had no hope of recovery. People that wanted to take their lives due to depression were not considered and were advised to seek help.

He becomes friends and begins to work alongside Janet Good (Surandon) who is also an assisted sucide advocate; with help from Nicol, Janus, and Good, he begins to accept patients. Although Kevorkian is designing the machines and supplying the injections or lethal gases, he is not technically doing the deed and therefore with help of his high powered attorney Geoffrey Fieger (Huston), Kevorkian continues his right-to-die campaign. He is successful in over 100 assisted suicides and in an attempt to get the Supreme Court's attention on the matter, he himself administers an injection to a patient, then airs it on 60 minutes. This act, and Kevorkian representing himself in court is what ultimately landed him in jail for over 8 years.

The amount of information that we learn in this film and being able to see and understand Kevorkian's side of the story is truly thought provoking. After seeing footage of Kevorkian himself we can also see that Pacino did his homework to play the character flawlessly. The irony is.....as a movie, I got bored. All the content was there: he was a painter, a doctor, never married, compassionate for people's rights to live and die, an activist....but what fell short? Well I think the footage on the cutting room floor is the answer to that question.

One thumb up to subject matter and acting, one thumb down for editing and direction.