By Mary Kandaharian
Kandaharian88@ucla.edu
Oscar winner Al Pacino, renowned for his method acting, was chosen to portray the younger Dr. Kevorkian in the HBO movie “You Don’t Know Jack.” Dr. Jack Kevorkian, dubbed “Dr. Death” or “Jack the Dripper,” was an enigmatic pathologist who was responsible for assisting more than 130 suicides with his “mercy machine.” He publicly championed a terminal patient’s right to die via physician-assisted suicide. Dr. Kevorkian called this Mercy killing, but the jury called it “second degree murder.”
In 1998, Dr. Kevorkian videotaped the euthanasia procedure of Thomas Youk, a 52 year old man suffering from Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and broadcasted the process on “60 Minutes.” He was convicted with second-degree murder and sentenced to 10-25 years in prison.
When asked about the movie’s title by Los Angeles Times editor, Joy Press, Pacino insisted that it is apt, “because you don’t know this guy. Hopefully, in the movie, you still don’t. He is more than meets the eye, and that’s part of the appeal for us… It’s a portrait of a zealot I don’t think we see that often.”
Al Pacino alongside a cast consisting of Susan Sarandon, John Goodman, Danny Huston, and Hollywood director Barry Levinson will portray a film about the infamous “Mercy Machine” and spark a heated debate about how the elderly and disabled are treated. The biopic is loosely based on the 2006 released book “Between the Dying and the Dead: Dr. Jack Kevorkian’s Life and the Battle to Legalize Euthanasia” by authors Neal Nicol and Harry Wylie.
Goodman will play one of Kevorkian’s friends and co-workers, whose medical training as a corpsman and laboratory technician enabled him to assist Kevorkian on many occasions, while his laboratory supply company often provided materials for Kevorkian’s efforts. Meanwhile, Susan Sarandon will play Hemlock Society activist Janet Good who becomes one of Jack’s greatest supporters, working side by side with him to make humane suicide available to the terminally ill and suffering. After she is herself diagnosed with terminal cancer, she avails herself of Kevorkian’s services, choosing her own time to die, surrounded by her friends and loved ones.
Dr. Kevorkian was released from a Michigan maximum-security prison in 2007 with a parole pledge that he never kill again. He was released in eight years as opposed to the 25 years due to good behavior. In the First News conference since his release from prison, Dr. Kevorkian stated, “I will now concentrate on educating people on their rights.” Bear in mind that thus far, the only state to have legalized physician-assisted suicide is Oregon.
As part of his parole, he can’t help with assisted suicide or talk about how it’s done. Dr. Kevorkian commented saying, “There’s your freedom of speech, the first amendment. I can’t talk about the procedure. Why? I’m afraid of going to prison.”
Los Angeles Times writer Joy Press proclaimed, “When he agreed to play Jack Kevorkian in the HBO movie ‘You Don’t Know Jack,’ Al Pacino was not just taking on a living person who is familiar to many of us from the nightly news. He was also slipping into the skin of one of the most controversial figures of our era.” The movie "You Don't Know Jack" is scheduled to premiere on HBO this spring.
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