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Whose Life Is It Anyway? (1981)

Director: John Badham

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3 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

To be fair, this is a livelier film than you'd expect, considering that its subject is a paralysed patient's struggle for the right to die. Badham has done his best to see that this adaptation of Brian Clark's play is filled with humour and emotion, and he's helped by a verbally energetic performance from Dreyfuss. But popular cinema is ultimately not about talk, and for all its verbal pyrotechnics, the film has the unmistakable narrative thinness of the filmed play. One of the results is that our sympathy for the eternally wisecracking Dreyfuss is stretched to the limit. 'So far as I am concerned' says Dreyfuss at one point, 'I am dead already'. Yet, despite some moving scenes, this is precisely what the film never conveys.

Author: DP 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

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User reviews of this film

  • malek said...
    Posted on Jun 05 2009 05:04 i think the book is very touching and moving but i feel you truely see the true amount of anger and depression in the film more you see his frustration and the way he cares about his fiance bye telling her to live her life and that she shouldnt be held down to a 'cripple'... x thaks for reading malek rahimi 14 years old sibford school.
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  • d said...
    Posted on Dec 09 2007 11:58 Sucks
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  • erika said...
    Posted on Dec 03 2007 11:01 I would watch it again and again... Deeply touching and encouraging at the same time... Positive human relationships are still possible nowaadays...Life at all costs? That's a dilemma of most of us. Whay can't some feel differently? Maybe our free will is really only an illusion.
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Cast & crew

Director: John Badham

Producer: Lawrence P Bachmann

Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, John Cassavetes, Christine Lahti, Bob Balaban, Kenneth McMillan, Kaki Hunter, Janet Eilber full cast

Duration: 118 mins


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