Movie 189: You Don't Know Jack

You Don't Know Jack (2010) by Barry Levinson

starring Al Pacino

In a nutshell: Pretty good as far as made-for-TV based-on-a-true-story movies go

Quick synopsis: The story of Jack Kevorkian's activist years

Content (bullet-points edition):

• Having watched a few HBO movies (this, Recount) and a few similar network/cable/Cinemax TV movies (Pirates of Silicon Valley, Rogue Trader), the difference in quality is clear. HBO has even convinced accomplished Hollywood directors to handle (Barry Levinson, Jay Roach) to handle their projects. HBO films are theater quality.
• This is the 5th Levinson movie I've seen. The others are The Natural, Bugsy, Rain Man, Sleepers. I'd rank them like this:

1. Rain Man
2. Sleepers
3. The Natural
4. You Don't Know Jack
5. Bugsy

• Anyone who knows how much of a baseball fan I am is probably disappointed in my ranking of The Natural. I've only seen it once and I didn't fall in love immediately like I did with Field of Dreams. In fact, I would put You Don't Know Jack pretty close behind. All in all, these are five very solid movies
• Levinson has other jewels in his crown as well: Good Morning Vietnam and Wag the Dog stand out as the ones I most need to see. However he has had his share of disasters as well, especially in recent years: Envy, What Just Happened...
• Al Pacino was really, really good as Dr. Death. I expect award nominations. He even manages to keep himself mostly under control and only starts with the yelling he is so well-known for since Scent of a Woman a few times. Reminded me of the football coach he played in the underrated Any Given Sunday.
• Susan Sarandon bored me and I could envision any of 100 other actresses easily doing at least as well.
• John Goodman was fine and he even played a subdued amalgamation of a few of the characters he has played for the Coens (Barton Fink, Big Lebowski). However, I'm still not quite sure who his character was and why he was around so often.
• The death scenes are heartbreaking and very well done. Believe it or not, this is a movie filled with subtlety. It would have been so easy to slam the audience with the more newsworthy pieces of Kevorkian's story, but Levinson bothers to spend more time on Jack's intimate conversations with those he kept close. The end result is a more clear picture of what makes Kevorkian tick. Pirates of Silicon Valley (review coming soon) was the exact opposite. Jobs and Gates are caricatures. Levinson deserves a lot of credit for this because lord knows Pacino would have let it all out if no one was keeping him in check.
• Random LOST appearance of the week: Eric Lange who played the always-grumpy Radzinsky turns up as a prosecutor.
• You Don't Know Jack covers some difficult territory, especially for people who have had loved ones suffer greatly at the end of their lives. And the very quiet nature of the death scenes make them all the more unsettling. If you are up for it, You Don't Know Jack is as good a TV movie as I've ever seen. Some may think the prolonged death scenes may be gratuitous or cheap ways to draw forth emotion - especially since the movie is supposed to be about the man, not the patients - but I think that the focus on the death scenes and how Jack handles himself around his patients is necessary to get a fully colored picture of this endlessly complicated and fascinating human being.

Rolling rankings:
1. (500) Days of Summer (#185)
2. The Maltese Falcon (#188)
3. Up in the Air (#182)
4. Big Fan (#180)
5. The September Issue (#183)
6. You Don't Know Jack (#189)
7. Rachel Getting Married (#187)
8. Sex and the City 2 (#186)
9. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (#184)
10. Extract (#181)