Back in 1990, Jack Kevorkian began doing the unthinkable in the United States. He was helping in assisted suicides of patients, something that was completely unheard of in this country. Not doing this for profit, only for mercy, Kevorkian helped to assist suicides between 1990 and 1998. In 1999, Michigan attorneys finally caught up with him after he officially caused the death of a man requesting suicide. Getting him on murder charges, which he was found guilty for, he found himself in jail until 2007.
When this was first going on I was only 13 years of age. The controversy surround Dr. Kevorkian’s methods were a huge deal at the time. Wondering how a man could get such pleasure in ending lives was so baffling for me. The news, as it usually does, never fully tells the entire story, so most of the country probably saw this man as a true ‘Dr. Death’ (his nickname). What’s great about this HBO film, You Don’t Know Jack, is that they take this figure that only appeared in court when I saw him as a teenager, and tell a great backstory about his life and why he did what he did. I had no idea what his motivation was prior to the film and now that I see what he saw I understand more about his plight. Without this film I would have never known that euthanasia was so widespread in Europe. There’s a lot of information that paints him in a different life than what I saw on the news when this stuff was going on. I had no clue that he had so much help, or what his real purpose of assisting suicides truly was. The film does a great job on filling in the blanks and painting the man in a very ‘human’ light. I’m beginning to wonder if the news had done this would he have avoided jail time.
Anyway, let me just say that I was preparing myself for a hard hitting drama and what came out of You Don’t Know Jack was more informative and lighthearted than I could have expected. It was refreshing, touching and tough at the same time, but focus on reason was never lost. Barry Levinson’s direction really was solid from beginning to end. He weaved a tale of a man wrongfully shaped in society’s eyes. He accomplished this with style and grace, and just a tad bit of humor to go along with it. Again, you might go into it expecting something dead serious and depressing, but that’s not what you’re going to get out of it.
Of course, Levinson couldn’t have pulled it off without finding the right Jack Kevorkian; and Al Pacino was a damn fine pick. Compassionate towards the people who need him and mocking for those against him, Pacino plays the perfect Kevorkian. He does it so well that you forget it’s Pacino by the time the story reaches its climax. His style, grace and his ability to completely take out the New York City attitude and turn it into a feisty, determined old man is nothing short of amazing. It also helped that he had a great supporting cast around him (John Goodman, Susan Sarandon, Brenda Vaccaro and Danny Huston), but he really took charge and made you believe that he was the good doctor.
So, with all this said, is there anything wrong with the film? Not really, other than this man didn’t get a fair shake in the 90s. From beginning to end the film will have you glued to the set. You’ll get his reasons and how he did things. The movie does a great job of representing the man and it’s yet another example of what quality work HBO is putting out these days.
Now, movie aside, let’s talk about special features. There isn’t a lot here; in fact there’s only one feature. What’s neat about the feature is that it has interviews with the actors and their true-to-life counterparts. You get some good dialogue with Kevorkian and some great dialogue with Pacino as well. It’s a solid feature, but it’s super short and it’s the only one. I wish there had been commentary from Kevorkian on this movie, or any commentary at all. Could you imagine how great that would have been? Regretfully there wasn’t and you’re only left starving with one feature. Still, it’s a good feature.