Word: sampedro
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...aging quadriplegic named Ramón Sampedro wishes to end his life. The state insists that he must live on. And as Ramón pursues his dream of a dignified death, we, of course, begin to think that a man so witty, intelligent and soulful may be wrong--that however grievous his afflictions, he ought to spare himself. Spirits as fine as his are not to be lightly wasted...
Bridging these two spaces is the film’s central character, Ramon Sampedro (Javier Bardem). In his early twenties, Ramon suffered a life-altering accident during a trip to the beach and was left a quadriplegic as a result. After 28 years of living with his condition, he longs to bring his life...
...think you gonna capture thirty years of pain and family...?" This question arises late in Year of the Horse, cult filmmaker Jim Jarmusch's documentary about Neil Young & Crazy Horse. It is aimed directly at Jarmusch (Stranger than Paradise, Night on Earth, Mystery Train) by Crazy Horse guitarist Frank Sampedro in the always interesting one-on-one interviews with band members that make up a large part of the film. Jarmusch doesn't answer, but allows his subject to continue to question his intentions in directing a film about the on-and off-stage struggles and triumphs of a band...
...hand over Year of the Horse to Young alone. What makes the biographical parts of the film most interesting is that the real focus is Neil Young and Crazy Horse--how they became not just bandmates but brothers: Young (guitar/vocals), Ralph Molina (drums/vocals), Billy Talbot (bass) and Frank "Poncho Sampedro." It's this aspect--their powerful sense of family--that saves their story from being just another tale of a '70s band...
...some months before Sampedro and Jorge Arroyo, his pro bono lawyer, learn whether Strasbourg will hear their plea, the first such to be put to the commission. Says Sampedro: ``Death is a taboo in our society. But for a psychologically mature person, voluntary death, when it is to bring to an end an incurable or intolerable suffering, is rational.'' A poem he has written called ``Why Die?'' answers itself in the first line: ``Porque el sueno se ha vuelto pesadilla'' (Because the dream has become a nightmare...