MR. DEATH: THE RISE AND FALL OF FRED A. LEUCHTER, JR. (Lions Gate) Featuring: Fred A. Leuchter Jr., Robert Jan van Pelt, Ernst Zundel, James Roth. Producers: Michael Williams, David Collins, Dorothy Aufiero and Errol Morris. Director: Errol Morris. MPAA Rating: PG-13 (adult themes, mild profanity) Running Time: 90 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
We're going to have to create a new designation for Errol Morris, because "documentary filmmaker" just doesn't seem to cut it. Yes, Morris' subjects have all been real-life people in films like THE THIN BLUE LINE, A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME and FAST, CHEAP & OUT OF CONTROL. He has also opted to up the ante for what a non-fiction film can be, staging visually compelling vignettes or using re-creations to impose his artistic vision on the story he's trying to tell. It's no wonder Morris' films have consistently been overlooked by the more tradition-bound documentarians of the Motion Picture Academy. Call him a maker of non-fiction films if you must ... or simply a director.
With MR. DEATH: THE RISE AND FALL OF FRED A. LEUCHTER, JR., Errol Morris has given us another reason to toss out the term "documentary filmmaker" -- as striking as the film is, it sometimes feels a bit thin on background detail. Morris' latest subject is another man with a unique obsessive interest: Fred A. Leuchter, Jr., a Massachusetts-based execution technology enthusiast. After becoming aware of the horrendous quality of most capital punishment equipment, Leuchter became an expert in designing more effectvie and humane electric chairs, lethal injection machines and gas chambers for states' prison systems. His expertise in this field led him down a life-changing road when he was asked to be a witness in the defense of Ernst Zundel, a revisionist historian charged in Canada with disseminating propaganda denying the truth of the Holocaust. After visiting the ruins of the Nazi camps at Auschwitz, Birkenau and Majdanek, Leuchter concludes that they could not have included gas chambers. While his "Leuchter Report" was not admitted at the trial, it has become one of the most widely disseminated pieces of "evidence" for those who claim there was no Holocaust.
Leuchter's involvement in the 1988 Zundel trial begins a downward spiral in his career, as states terminate contracts and Holocaust remembrance groups assail the science in his report (chemist James Roth, who performed the "Leuchter Report" tests, supports the contention that Leuchter's tests were miserably designed). While activists argue that Leuchter's work for revisionist groups marks him an anti-Semite, Morris paints a slightly different picture. Leuchter becomes a vivid character in the film, a "mouse of a man" (in Zundel's words) with a Boston Brahmin accent and an unshakeable conviction that he is right. He comes off as a unique sort of egotist, a man so used to playing God in his manufacture of instruments of death that infallibility becomes part of his self-image.
It would be a helpful bit of information in the formation of that picture for us to know that Leuchter's academic background had nothing to do with engineering or chemistry, but was in fact in history. Though Leuchter does discuss a move by the state of Massachusetts to prosecute him as an unlicensed engineer late in the film, his background would seem to be much more important than the casual inclusion Morris gives it. In fact, MR. DEATH leaves much about Leuchter only peripherally explored: his relationship with his wife of only a few months (who speaks but does not appear on screen); his reactions to the fame/infamy inspired by the "Leuchter Report;" his strangely superstitious response to a mysterious image in a photo of one of his electric chairs. Morris lets Leuchter talk about himself for a very long time, but he doesn't probe. In this case, the approach leaves holes in the story.
That doesn't make MR. DEATH a failure as a film. Indeed, a less-than-perfect Errol Morris documentary is still infinitely more watchable than most conventional documentaries. Some viewers may find his stylized renderings of his subject -- Leuchter the coffee addict reflected in a cup of coffee; Leuchter filmed between flashing electrodes like a modern Dr. Frankenstein -- distracting or inappropriate. Others will find them part of Morris' ongoing reinvention of the form. It is surprising, however, that this may be the first Morris' documentary that's more interesting as a cinematic experience than it is as a learning experience. As a documentarian, Morris is a singular artist. In Fred Leuchter, he's left an enigmatic unfinished portrait.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 depth penalties: 7.
Visit Scott Renshaw's Screening Room http://www.inconnect.com/~renshaw/ *** Subscribe to receive new reviews directly by email! See the Screening Room for details, or reply to this message with subject "Subscribe".
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews