"You Don't Know Jack" is a 2010 movie starring Al Pacino as Jack Kevorkian, or better known as "Doctor Death". The film focuses on the life and work of physician-assisted suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian, who advocated the idea of doctor-assisted suicide. His aim was to help the hopeless patients who are terminally ill or suffering from debilitating pain to commit suicide effortlessly. Dr. Jack Kevorkian tackled one of the most controversial issues in the 1990's, if not still to this day, regarding euthanasia and the rights a terminally ill person has to end their life with assisted suicide. Kevorkian evolved his "service" by helping more than 130 patients end their lives. For a man who was labeled a serial killer, this film does a lot to show the truth and does much to humanize and sympathize with the Kevorkian.
Here we see the thoroughly calculated procedures that went into each suicide, including a recorded consultation, signing of consent forms, and then the actual death of the patient. It shows what each person went through, along with his or her families. Not until learning about the story of Brittney Maynard, the 29-year-old who had terminal brain cancer, never have I thought of this topic before, but the film put the idea of euthanasia into perspective. .
After watching this film, I have taken Kevorkian's side. If a person is suffering and is beyond all hope of recovery, as long as they are of clear mind and body and want to make such a decision, who are we to stop them? Kevorkian is in pursuit of the larger story goal of convincing everyone of the idea that euthanasia should be a basic human right. He constantly pushes the idea that you just cannot sit around and do nothing when people are suffering. We witness his resistance through hunger strikes, his protest against the charge that he has violated the common law, and his bold disobedience in the courtroom.
