Product Details

• Actors: Richard Dreyfuss, John Cassavetes, Christine Lahti, Bob Balaban, Kenneth McMillan
• Directors: John Badham
• Writers: Brian Clark, Reginald Rose
• Producers: Gregg Champion, Lawrence P. Bachmann, Martin C. Schute, Ray Cooney
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• DVD Release Date: May 22, 2007
• Run Time: 119 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000N3SRP4
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,215 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Whose Life Is It Anyway?" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Ken Harrison is an artist that makes sculptures. One day he is involved in a car accident and is paralyzed from his neck. All he can do is talk and he wants to die. In hospital he make friends with some of the staff and they support him when he goes to trial to be allowed to die.Running Time: 118 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 012569795532 Manufacturer No: 795539

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary compelling, unforgettable, frequently painful, yet intriguing!, January 16, 2007

By 

Roberto Frangie "Robert" (Leon, Gto. Mexico) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Ken Harrison (Richard Dreyfuss) is an artist... His fingers make things of beauty...

When he lived through a car accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down, we understood why he wanted to be left alone to die...

Ken moved from a world of life and creation, to an empty world where he can't move even a single finger...

Lying under the white sheets of the hospital bed, he is subjected to stress under the shock of his another reality... The artist has gone... The creator of an art expressed in all its different dimensions, round in relief, imagery, symbolism, all vanished in seconds...

But his human spirit remains alive under the severity, the compulsion, the threats of his new reality...

Ken was a cunning sculptor, skillful, ingenious in the use of his mind and hands... He is now charming, capable to seduce the whole nursing staff by pillow talk...

The movie deals with many hypothesis about the right to die...

Does a patient have the right to choose to die? Does he have the right to refuse life-sustaining medical treatment, even if that means certain immediate or accelerated death?

Doctor Emerson (John Cassavetes) wants to prolong the life of Ken... He wants him to live his disability as quadriplegic even feeling so down... For him, everybody has their own struggles in life...

Richard Dreyfuss is superb as Ken Harrison, a quick moving mind, true and clever, who displays unpleasant, troublesome reality... He relies on his intelligence and energy rather than his looks and charisma to win his fight, his right to die...

John Cassavetes i excellent in his role, intense as Dr. Emerson, the Chief of Staff... He plays the role with personality, ability and style dealing with the problem with absolute professionalism...

Christine Lahti (Dr. Clare Scott) is very appealing, too powerful, tempting and charming, tolerant and understanding, along with big heart... She is convincing, closer than most to truth or at least to the subjective reality of her patient...

The film is extraordinary compelling, unforgettable, frequently painful, yet intriguing!

What we learn about ethics and how to make decisions may be useful in this real world... The path taken really does transform the meaning...

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This needs to be a DVD ASAP, July 21, 2005

By 

Kathryn Groob - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This is one of the best, most poignant films ever made. Please produce this on DVD soon. I've been waiting for years!

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Such a good film, priced way to high for average viewer., October 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Whose Life Is It Anyway? [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Its been out since 1981 already. Don't you think its time the price got lowered for the average person. I've been looking for it second hand for years. Tell the studio to lower the price please.