“You Don’t Know Jack,” a film by Oscar-winning director Barry Levinson based on the life and work of doctor-assisted suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian, will air on HBO on April 24.
The plot takes place in the 1990’s when Kevorkian, a former pathologist, began his highly controversial practice of assisting suicides, and brought the topic of euthanasia to the forefront of American political debate.
The script, written by Adam Mazer, is somewhat based on Neal Nicol’s Between the Dying and the Dead: Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the Assisted Suicide Machine and the Battle to Legalize Euthanasia.
The film premiere took place on April 15 at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York where a limelight ready Jack Kevorkian walked the red carpet alongside Pacino. Talking to the Associate Press, Kevorkian remarked, “We hope [the film] changes minds, which is probably unlikely—it may change a few—because we’re fighting too much power.”
As for Pacino, he was eager to play the character. “Playing a character like Jack Kevorkian, who was so out there and so interesting and so unique, and went after stuff that was very far reaching…and with a good script, as this was, and a great director—so of course I went after it,” he told AP. While in an HBO promotional clip, he referred to Kevorkian as “the real thing, and you rarely come across the real thing!”
Kevorkian spent over eight years in prison for assisting in the suicides of terminally ill patients. In 1999, a Michigan jury found him guilty of second-degree homicide, and sentenced him to 10-25 years in jail. The charges were brought against him after he sent a videotape of himself euthanizing a terminally ill man, Thomas Youk, to CBS’s “60 Minutes” program. He was released from jail in 2007 on a two-year parole. It was in the 1990’s that, by some accounts, he played a role in up to 130 assisted suicides.
Aside from being the highly controversial figure nicknamed Dr. Death, Murad “Jack” Kevorkian is also a jazz musician, composer, and oil painter. His paintings, which are satirical and grotesque, have been exhibited nationwide, including at the Armenian Library and Museum of America (ALMA) in Watertown. And they are no less controversial than his assisted suicides.
Some HBO airing dates and EST times are:
Sat., April 24 at 9 p.m.
Sun., April 25 at 5:45 p.m.
Tues., April 27 at 9:45 a.m.
Tues., April 27 at 8:30 p.m.
Nanore Barsoumian
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INDEED, THEY ARE BOTH “LEGEND” IN THIER OWN CHARACTER’S.
BLESS THEM BOTH……..
Al Pacino played an Armenian once before as well, in the 1982 film “Author! Author!” – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083598/.
So, this might be very well done, for sure, but do you all think it’s just a simple ‘coincidence’ that the geniuses at HBO decided to air this on April 24? Nothing in this world happens by accident…nothing. Putting an Armenian on national TV as ‘Dr. Death’ on April 24 is a very, very cruel joke, but shows very clearly that some people in the media are, at the base, very anti-Armenian…and at least to me, this is clear evidence of that bias.
Have to agree with Karekin that this appears to be a very suspicious coincidence. The enemies of the Armenians are both covert and overt. We need to learn how to play the diplomatic game with finesse and discernment because our friends are few and our enemies are well funded. We Armenians need to pull together in support of RA. My opinion is that the Turks will do anything to avoid accepting the word Genocide and are anxious to appear to the world that they will be “fair” in settling the Armenian question. While I want more than an apology, I could forgo the Turks accepting the term “genocide” (because the world has acknowledged it) in exchange for economic considerations including access to a seaport! We have to work this from many angles.
Karekin,
I think you’re being a little too conspiratorial on this. I watched it and in the movie Jack’s sister mentioned the genocide. Although the term ‘Armenian Holocaust’ was used in the script. Is Armenian Genocide so contravercial that Armenian Holocuast is an acceptable substitute? Maybe that’s the term Jack’s sister Margo used in real life. They seem to be trying to be accurate to the real life story.
That said, the idea of assisted suicide for those suffering from a terminal illness is not an issue. The situation can be so bad that doing everything to keep that patient alive a few more weeks simply extends teh suffereing. But Kervorkian’s persuit and advocacy of the issue was I believe dangerous and wreckless. He was the lone judge determining the cases that came to him and then taking his machine to the patient, hooking it up and letting the person pull the string.
Dear Dr. Kevorkian: My name is Kathy Dorian and I am the grandaughter of Ankine Kevorkian. She lived in Armenia and attended an America school in Turkey way back then. She was later adoped by a wonderful American family, but she remembers at the station waving goodbye to her family, mom holding a little baby boy. She was about 15 yearsof age (not sure). I know your bio says you were born here in the states, but is there any chance that the two of you are related. She has sinced passed away, but I have one Dad still alive and one Aunt and if so they would love to get to know you. My dad will turn 80 this summer and my aunt will turn 82 and is a little frail. We are a wonderful Armenia family and hope there isa relationship somewhere between you and my grandmother. Thank you for your time and please try and stay healthy even if you are not related. Take careKathy
For me- they are and were our solem enemy-look and listen to the politicians and the arrogant SOB’s in Turkey that lead the country-they occupy our land-not all of it but some of it. We want it back and yes-history repeats itself except we will be armed and ready-they will nto know what hit them and when- They want hardball- the gamble is we lose if we do not play. Denial too is a disease. the killers or Hrant Dink stinked of it and they are not going away soon-they got us! only for a short while-as long as they continue their play-we will stay ahead- Armenia as Saroyan said is any two of us anywhere. We are in a new world