sergepesic
Is life a precious thing? It certainly is to those who enjoy good health and someone to share it with. For centuries people didn't think about those things. After all the life expectancy was significantly shorter, and the death seemed to be a natural end of life. Then the medicine advanced and we keep people alive even after they lose any quality of life. Because life is precious, or because there is more money to be made in keeping people around? Then came Jack Kevorkian and his passionate belief in helping people to end their lives with dignity. Now we know what conservative, fundamentalist religious people think. Well I am definitely not one of them, so I am torn between these deeply moral questions. Very good HBO movie, cautious not the shove the point down our throats, but discretely portraying a strange, damaged man with good notions, but the wrong personality for his beliefs. At the end it is all about the skill to sell us whatever nonsense they think of. Look at the politicians. Charm and white teeth, and what is underneath is scarier than Dr. Kevorkian's paintings.
gulbin-bahr
Al Pacino at the top level of his acting. The writing is not exceptional as is "just" follows the true story of Jack. Al Pacino makes a difference and as the viewer you will forget very quick that it is acting only. You really believe to have the real Jack in front of you. Al Pacino drives you through a voyage of all possible emotions and is acting in perfect harmony with his co workers. In addition this movie tells you the true story of Jack and it is indeed an extraordinary controversy topic which suggests the viewer to further discuss even long after the film ended. If you want to see a great biography film not make for the big screen then this picture is a must see and Al very well deserved his golden globe
Armand
delicate subject. interesting manner to present it. and new wave for Pacino. more than a great actor, he is best option for doctor Kevorkian story. because more than a film or a pledge, more than a documentary in skin of drama, more than a case, the film is a window to a dark, gentle, cruel, humanitarian world. not a verdict. only a drawing. a trial. but in a form who destroy borders between good and bad. without compromises but a speech for everybody conscience. it is extraordinary the precise science of Al Pacino to give force, fragility and a kind of aura to a butcher-victim. sure, the case is more complex. the film is not source of revelations or support for one of parts. it is only occasion to reflect about a subject out of colors. a beginning. subtle, ambiguous, strange. the advocate of devil - same Al Pacino on top of hill.
chaos-rampant
This is a remarkable little movie in its odd way. You have a man who wanted to change the world for the better, a doctor. He had some reasonable but gnarly ideas, including blood transfusion from cadavers. He may not had been Galileo as perhaps in his moments of persecution felt some kinship to, but he did argue for reason and science and tried to make life better.The snag is that he had vision of a sort but he was the worst possible guy to explain to the world. No one would listen until he went out on his own and did it. And the only reason anyone listened was because he made films about it, filmed his patients. So how about this for a deeply cinematic subject?The point is that reason, facts or ideas, do not change the world. Being able to present it as part of an appealing story does.You'll see this in the film for a clear effect, in Kevorkian having sound ideas but no one is really willing to be convinced, since he presents them in such a morbid , confrontational way, until he pulls out his films. It is the emotional story in those films that moves the jurors, the theatrics of conscience on display.The film is the same theatrics offering the same cry. We are the jury.Al Pacino was just the right man for the job - playing a favorite part of aging actors, the frazzled old person, he nails the right balance between visionary flame in earnest and slumping human shell in his baggy pants. DeNiro would not manage, not anymore.
AD
