Product Details

• Actors: Al Pacino, Susan Sarandon, Danny Huston
• Directors: Barry Levinson
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
• Dubbed: French, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: HBO Home Video
• DVD Release Date: October 26, 2010
• Run Time: 134 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B003EV6DCG
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,774 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "You Don't Know Jack" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Made for HBO, Barry Levinson's sympathetic telefilm casts an affable eye on a serious subject: the mission of Jack Kevorkian (a thoroughly de-glamorized Al Pacino). In the opening sequence, Kevorkian tells his long-suffering sister, Margo (Brenda Vaccaro, excellent), how hard he found it to watch their mother die a long and agonizing death. Convinced that the terminally ill deserve the right to die with dignity, he shares his beliefs with Jack (James Urbaniak), a Detroit journalist; Janet (Susan Sarandon), a Hemlock Society leader; and Neal (John Goodman), a medical supply salesman (the scenes of Neal and Jack playing poker recall Levinson's Diner). Before he's assisted a single patient, Kevorkian makes the national news, prompting Neal to quip, "You're not a local quack anymore. You're America's quack." Writer Adam Mazer profiles several of the 130 patients to take advantage of his "mercy machine," starting with Janet Adkins, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease. For protection, Jack acquires the services of attorney Geoffrey Fieger (Danny Huston), who supports him through evictions, lawsuits, jail time, and hunger strikes--until Kevorkian engineers his own downfall by defending himself. As with HBO's Recount, Levinson adds archival footage at key points, such that Barbara Walters and others appear to play themselves. If he handles Jack's quirks with humor, he always treats the afflicted with respect, and if Pacino's accent skews more New York than Michigan, his pleasure in playing this strong-willed eccentric fuels Levinson's finest directorial effort in ages. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Product Description

Angel of mercy… or murderous “Doctor Death”? Jack Kervorkian is one of the most polarizing figures in modern American history, a man whose passionate belief that people have the right to die has brought him both praise and vilification. Oscar®- and Emmy®-winning actor Al Pacino brings “Dr. Death” to life in an all-new HBO Films presentation: You Don’t Know Jack, directed by Oscar®-winner Barry Levinson.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 56 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars To admire the dust on the shoes of the condemned... April 28, 2010

By Aco

Format:DVD

Once upon a time this film would have been released in theatres and this lead performance and maybe even Brenda Vaccaro's would have been nominated for Academy Awards. That is how good this film is, award worthy, notable for it's stellar execution and story, a standout for this year. Al Pacino's Jack Kevorkian is not his best work in a decade, as some have speculated. It is his best work since Angels in America (from 2003), also an HBO produced and presented film. He is as commanding in that amazing series as in this. Pacino has always been physically gifted as an actor; adept at expressing his emotions with his back or his head, his hands or his walk. I think his reputation as actor has suffered in the last twenty years because he moved away from using his body (essential to the art of acting) and compensated with his voice. In this context, this film is a return to form: Donnie Brasco, Carlito's Way, Glengarry Glen Ross, Scent of a Woman, Dick Tracy, to name his best work since 1990.

You Don't Know Jack is an apt title for this film, because I was certainly aware of Jack Kevorkian growing up, knew he was an advocate and involved in euthanasia and that he went to prison, but I didn't know he was such an iconoclast; morbid, graphic and unapologetic painter, a musician, a bachelor and a civil disobedient. These characteristics add to his legend, and his stature as a doctor who seems to have taken his profession and life's work as something more than a path to prestige and wealth, which cannot be said of some doctors in truth and perhaps too many in reputation. The role of the physician in society is an aspect of the successful story told here.
The role of the politician and the collective social fears of death in our society are the other themes, and they too are well told.
Though Kevorkian is presented sympathetically, and his opponents are not; angry "Christians" in general and a politically vengeful D.A. specifically, it is ultimately his own folly that dooms him. This may speak to his bachelorhood, his unemployment at the outset of the film and his stubbornness at getting to the Supreme Court. But his ambitions are not clarified here, other than his humanism, which is made genuine in small moments as well as big.

I highly recommend this film. Al Pacino and Jack Kevorkian are in the center of it, and the other actors, particularly Vaccaro as his sister Margo, are excellent. Euthanasia is an issue brought to the forefront by Kevorkian, but his incarceration did not produce another advocate in his stead, and the issue has unfortunately fallen by the wayside. It is an important consideration, what power we have over ourselves when we are faced with imminent pain before our death. This film handles it incredibly well, and I hope it produces as much discussion and thought for you as it did for me.

Thanks.

38 of 43 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Unbiased & Nonpolitical Film Review April 26, 2010

By Compay TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:DVD

As you already know, most people who watch this film have already formed an opinion about doctor-assisted suicide. So rather than discuss ethics, this review will simply be about the film itself.

What stands out most about this movie is the terrific performance by Al Pacino, which is easily his best in the last decade. Al slips effortlessly into character, and delivers a nuanced performance that honestly makes you forget you're watching a Pacino film. I was also impressed with the zeal that Danny Huston brought to his portrayal of Geoffrey Fieger, Kevorkian's outspoken attorney.

I found the film to be revealing, but fairly unbiased in its portrayal of Kevorkian. While you're provided with an understanding of his motive by the film's conclusion, you're still presented with both sides of the debate. The movie also doesn't pull any punches with respect to revealing some of Kevorkian's eccentricities, or the self-deprecating "quack" jokes that take place. The film obviously calls for a little levity, and is punctuated by the occasional light joke. The cinematography and lighting was quality, and I enjoyed the peaceful score by Brazilian composer Marcelo Zarvos.

Overall, I think the film is worth watching for Pacino's performance alone. I don't think there's anything about the movie that would change someone's perspective, but for better or worse it sheds some light on Kevorkian's beliefs.

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Taking Chances April 25, 2010

By Grady Harp HALL OF FAMETOP 50 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

Director Barry Levinson ('Diner', 'The Natural', 'Good Morning, Vietnam', 'Rain Man', 'Avalon', Bugsy', etc) has obviously taken a chance with his latest film YOU DON'T KNOW JACK, a cinematic evaluation of the notorious and controversial Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the Detroit pathologist who upon retiring from his career felt compelled to create a manner for people suffering chronic disease, paralytic illness, chemotherapy failures, and those pleading to die with dignity to have a choice as to whether they by law must linger in misery or be given the opportunity to have a doctor assisted suicide. Whether or not viewers react positively or negatively to this film for HBO will probably be tainted with personal convictions about assisted suicide rather than whether the film is worthy or a diatribe. But that is the still ongoing dilemma of the topic raised by the elderly Armenian physician's choices or convictions and one that the film explores well.

As for the film itself, it is a tour de force of acting performances: Al Pacino transforms himself physically and technically to bring the personality of Jack Kevorkian to life. It is a role of so many fine nuances that demonstrates ho Pacino truly does inhabit the title of the film. This Kevorkian is shown to be a man driven to be an outspoken activists for human rights - especially the right to die. His sister Margo, played to perfection by Brenda Vacarro, is the lonely Jack's sole source of emotional support, while his old friend and hospital medic Neal Nicol (who technically assists Kevorkian) is made a three dimensional person by John Goodman. Another supporter is the Hemlock Society worker Janet Good, another fine role for Susan Sarandon, and Danny Huston (almost unrecognizable in a wig) is Jack's pro bono lawyer Geoffrey Fieger. The technique used by Kevorkian is to interview people who approach him pleading to end their lives (some have tried regular suicide attempts before), make a video of the patient and family requesting assisted suicide, be sure the family and patient are serious and ready and only then provide the service with a contraption loaded with sedative and KCL that is triggered by the patient. Many of the actual patients are reenacted by a cadre of fine actors in scenes of pleading that tug at the heart.

Kevorkian is placed on trial by the courts in Michigan and finally after 133 assisted suicides is sentenced to prison - but not until after frequent jailings accompanied by Kevorkian's hunger strikes have resulted in his being released due to the finesse of his lawyer. Though Kevorkian has a large number of people who feel he is a cruel serial killer, this film presents the more human side of a man motivated to provide an alternative to patients suffering the lingering agonies of medically approved slow deaths. There are several tender scenes in this film, but the one that is a triumph of writing and acting is a conversation between Sarandon and Pacino as to what happened in Jack's childhood that began the idea for his mission. If viewers can get past their personal issues with the subject, then they will be witness to a superb film and terrific acting that will likely lead to an Emmy for at least Pacino. Watch this and learn. Grady Harp, April 10