Directed by Barry Levinson
Starring Al Pacino, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon. Danny Huston
Al Pacino is my favorite actor and I wanted to take time to see all his pictures or most of them. I’m starting with an unconventional movie, this one was made for HBO. Al Pacino won a Golden Globe, an Emmy, and a Screen Actors Guild award.
The film takes a look at famous doctor Jack Kevorkian. Jack is known for assisting people to kill themselves in cases of people with a terminal illness. He begins taking patients and develops a way for this person who has no hope to end their lives. Jack has to face a legal system that does not agree with what he does and goes against him trying to stop him.
The movie is very thought-provoking. Is a hard issue to take a stand on because it has to do with free choice and man playing god. The movie does a good job at just telling the story without picking a side although the lawmakers feel like the villains that is just because the protagonist goes against it. I think it is a very honest look at a hard issue and a complex character like Jack. It is a hard film to see because the patients did exist and even if there are actors playing them, as an audience I know someone felt so much pain that they decided to end their life. it also shows Jack fighting the system to make assisted suicide legal.
Al Pacino is great as Jack, his performance is so spot on. Al’s performance showed Jack’s conviction that what he was doing was not a crime. Seeing him work again with John Goodman was great. Susan Sarandon provided the sensitivity that the other characters could not provide and she was great.
