Critics Point Out Movie About Dr. Kevorkian Is 'One-Sided'

HBO is airing a movie, “You Don’t Know Jack,” about the life of Dr. Jack Kevorkian (aka: “Dr. Death”), who enabled the suicides of more than100 terminally-ill people. But the movie is so one-sided that even many mainstream media reviewers couldn’t help but point it out. USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, and the Boston Globe all noted how the movie favored assisted suicides.

USA Today’s Robert Bianco complained, “But on the crucial social issue itself – a person's right to die and a doctor's obligation to assist – the film falls squarely and unfailingly on Kevorkian's side.”

According to Bianco, “Everyone who stands against him is either an idiot, a bigot, or a politically motivated hack.” He cautioned, “Take that as a dual warning: You don’t get balance, and that one-sided approach can’t quite support the film’s overextended, two-hour-plus length.”

The Los Angeles Times’ Robert Lloyd wrote that, “the film comes down emotionally on the people’s right to make this choice for themselves.”

The Boston Globe’s Matthew Gilbert said that the movie “never glorifies Kevorkian.” But he also pointed out that “it seems tilted in favor of assisted suicides.”

Even the trailer for “You Don’t Know Jack” gives the impression the critics were exactly correct. As the Culture & Media Institute previously reported, the trailer showed Dr. Kevorkian, played by Al Pacino, and asked, “Is this the face of a killer?”

The trailer also featured Pacino stating, “If a person’s allowed to die, you do it quickly, painlessly, you don’t let him whither away.” Pacino also said, “When a law is deemed unmoral by you, you must disobey it.”

While the movie may be one-sided at least the movie critics were able to point it out. Apparently they are the ones who actually know Jack.