In HBO Kevorkian film, Pacino breathes life into Dr. Death

By Jacqueline Cutler / Zap2it | Sunday, April 18, 2010 |
| Television News

Al Pacino usually brings to a film raw emotion, a swagger and an attitude
and accent born from his upbringing in the Bronx. Yet in HBO’s compelling
"You Don’t Know Jack," airing Saturday at 9 p.m., Pacino is restrained,
shuffling and sounds as if he’s from Michigan. Pacino becomes Jack
Kevorkian, known as Dr. Death for assisting terminally ill patients’
suicides.

"I think what appealed to me to do it was to see if I could capture where I
could go as a zealot just because there are so few who are really the real
McCoy,"Pacino said. "And that would be Jack. He’s the guy that goes out the
window."

Though Pacino makes viewers feel as if they know the crusading Michigan
pathologist, he never met the man before filming. He did, though, study
hours of footage of the doctor and talked to him over the phone. He worked
with a dialect coach to nail Kevorkian’s accent.

"I just practiced every day," he said. "It is nice to have that advantage to
try to learn it as much as you can. It’s like practicing anything, like an
oboe."
cw-4 Long hailed as the consummate Method actor, Pacino sometimes forgot to
come out of character. When making "Serpico," the 1973 film about the
whistle-blowing New York cop, he was a passenger in a taxi and yelled at a
truck driver to pull over for polluting.

"I was about ready to pull out my badge, and I said, ‘What are you doing,
Al?’ " he said, then laughed. In another movie, "I was playing a lawyer, and
friends of mine were discussing a contract, and I said, ‘Let me see that.’ "cw-2
At least with this role, he didn’t try to help anyone commit suicide.

Kevorkian first became the subject of controversy in 1990, when he helped
the first of about 130 terminally ill people kill themselves. Though a movie
about assisted suicide isn’t a day brightener, it is an important film.

Besides Pacino’s worthy performance, John Goodman, Brenda Vaccaro and Susan
Sarandon as his best friend, sister and an ardent supporter, respectively,
all put in excellent turns. Perhaps the only shock here is that Sarandon is
dowdy, in frumpy skirts, sneakers and an ugly wig.

But as Goodman said, "You can’t dull her up too much."

Kevorkian’s story is told without sentiment, revealing a stoic man who loves
to paint and listen to Bach. He built his life on moderation and doesn’t
care about superficial trappings.

He does, though, fervently believe that people without hope of recovery
should have the right to die. Like all true believers, he’s willing to
sacrifice himself for that belief.

"I can tell you a couple of things that are not in the film," Pacino said.

"The whole idea of why Jack wanted to be there – that people needed to have
some figure of authority there so that when this action takes place, they
will be taken care of, so a doctor is there. Otherwise they will do it
themselves, and they are afraid it can go wrong.
"How about this one?" he continued. "What is crucial to the experience with
Jack is that most patients that left and did not come back were different
after they saw Jack. Somehow, that he existed eased their anxiety. They felt
they had more control of their lives after meeting Jack, and their relatives
would report back to Jack how much easier it was to live with them."

Though Pacino declined to say how he feels about euthanasia, Goodman said,
"If the cases are anything like the cases we portrayed, I believe these
people have the right to say when. Unfortunately it gets political, with
people making religious points."

Kevorkian built a "Mercitron," a device to deliver lethal drugs to suicidal
patients. He was careful that even a quadriplegic would be the one to
deliver the fatal dose, so Kevorkian never pulled the plug.

"He was the kind of crackpot inventor that you used to see in the Midwest,"
Goodman said.

"He’s a very, very gentle soul, and very, very bright. I never met
Kevorkian. I guess I was with the next best thing."

Scenes throughout the movie, especially of Kevorkian interviewing terminal
patients about wanting to die, are gut-wrenching. But it is in the jailhouse
scenes that viewers are reminded why Pacino has eight Oscar nominations.

Kevorkian was imprisoned several times, once for eight-plus years. During
one incarceration, he went on a hunger strike, andPacino is so believable in
the film, viewers can almost feel his dizziness. Throughout, Pacino conveys
the compassion of a man determined to do right.