Movies

Hoo-Ah! Al Pacino As Dr. Jack Kevorkian

By  · Published on January 15th, 2010

You don’t hear from Dr. Jack Kevorkian as much since he’s been paroled from prison in 2007. He was originally sentenced to 10 to 25 years for second-degree murder. He’s still kicking around, and even though he’s terminally ill with Hepatitis C, he’s run for Congress (he lost) and he regularly speaks about tyranny and the criminal justice system while campaigning to turn assisted suicide into a medical service. And he’s also being portrayed by Al Pacino in a biopic directed by Barry Levinson this April 24th. And they’ve made him look almost just like the real Dr. Jack.

You Don’t Know Jack also stars Susan Sarandon, Danny Huston, John Goodman, and Brenda Vaccaro and takes viewers back to 1990 (which seems like a billion years ago) when Jack was in the news every five minutes with his “Mercy Machine.” The film focuses on his ramp-up to assisted suicide, and the resulting court case and prison sentence. “I don’t think a lot of people can say they know Jack Kevorkian,” said Pacino, who didn’t meet with Kevorkian prior to the role. “When you see the image that was portrayed of Jack at the time, you get a very different picture than who he actually is. He is more than meets the eye, and that’s part of the appeal. It’s a portrait of a zealot that we don’t see that often.”

One thing is for sore, this looks infinitely more watchable than 88 Minutes or Righteous Kill, and Pacino looks like he’s going to chew up a lot of scenery in this. Which we welcome. Give us back the barking Lt. Vincent Hanna from Heat. That’s the Al we like.