Cancer (film)

Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies is a 2015 American documentary film produced and directed by Barak Goodman and executive produced by Ken Burns. The film, in three episodes of two hours each, is based on the Pulitzer Prize–winning 2010 book The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, by Siddhartha Mukherjee, and describes the history of cancer and cancer treatments, particularly in the United States.

WWW pbs.org/kenburns/cancer-e...

Overview

The film is narrated by Edward Herrmann, who was himself suffering from terminal brain cancer at the time of its production. He died on December 31, 2014, three months before the film's release, making the series his final performance.

Participants

The documentary film is narrated by Edward Herrmann, and includes the following participants:

Reception

Critical response

According to a review in the Los Angeles Times, the film is "the single most personally relevant documentary of this or any year". According to a review in The New York Times, the series is "absorbing", is "structured as an ever-evolving medical detective story, but the filmmakers give it heart as well by juxtaposing the history lessons with present-day personal profiles of cancer patients", seems perhaps "too much like a promotional video for cancer researchers and hospitals", and "touches only briefly on the significant issue of costs" but "achieves its main goal, which is to show the human impact of cancer."