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Errol Morris' work is unmistakable. The celebrated documentary filmmaker blends familiar music, extreme close-ups and slow-motion shots that fluctuate between polished color and rich black-and-white as Morris focuses his lens on slightly deranged yet exceptionally passionate subjects. In Mr. Death, Morris (Fast, Cheap and Out of Control) selects a Massachusetts engineer to plunk down in front of his camera.
Of course Fred Leuchter, Jr. isn't your average engineer from New England. He's an expert in the construction of execution equipment. Leuchter is all for the death penalty, but is sickened by torturous executions caused by antiquated equipment that could potentially result in unnecessary grief for both the prisoner and any witnesses present at the execution. He's helped build a better electric chair for the Tennessee State Prison, created a lethal injection system for New Jersey, and designed a new helmet for the North Carolina electric chair (the previous model was still younger than Jesse Helms).
It's easy to get wrapped up in Leuchter's enthusiasm for his profession. He takes his work very seriously, a fact that becomes evident as he describes the delicately emotional relationship between prison guards and death-row inmates. And it only takes Leuchter about sixty seconds to sum up this connection, compared to the three-plus-hour message delivered by the unwieldy film The Green Mile. It's this kind of efficiency that drove the chain-smoking caffeine addict to the top of his game.
But a steady diet of coffee and cigarettes can also warp your sensibility, as exhibited when Mr. Death switches focus from Leuchter's work background to a criminal trial in Toronto during the late ‘80s. Revisionist Historian Ernst Zundel, accused of publishing false statements (a crime in Canada) concerning the denial of the Holocaust, contracted Leuchter to examine forensic evidence from the eastern European concentration camps and gas chambers to prove his innocence. Despite the fact that Zundel was a well-known neo-Nazi and the publisher of a book called "The Hitler We Loved and Why,' Leuchter eagerly jumps at the opportunity to step into the limelight, figuring that the trial could be the crowning achievement of his career. What he doesn't expect is vocational execution, hence the lengthy title of the film.
Morris is in top form here, once again taking subject matter that I would equate with watching paint peel and turning it into an almost-riveting ninety-minute film. His ability to lay out the story of his subject is second-to-none and – thanks to cinematographer Robert Richardson (Snow Falling on Cedars) – also beautifully photographed. Morris effectively splits the film in halves, with the first establishing Leuchter as a harmless nerd and the second showing that evil can illuminate from the most unexpected sources.
1:30 – PG-13 for mild adult language and a scene depicting the execution of an elephant
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