The complex relationships between people facing the end and those who care for them are revealed in “the unforgettably sobering sights and sounds of Near Death, Frederick Wiseman's great, fearless, and monumental six-hour documentary chronicling the workings of the medical intensive care unit at Boston's Beth Israel Hospital....(The film is) less a viewing experience than a total immersion. It isn't the running time that makes Near Death so overwhelming; it's the subject itself. But at this length, the film has time to carry its audience from an initially raw emotional response to a calmer consideration of the difficult issues raised here, and finally on to some sort of resolution” (Janet Maslin, New York Times).

Near Death continues on Sunday, April 6.