America's quirkiest documentarian, Errol
Morris ("The Thin Blue Line", "A
Brief History of Time"), tackles an unusual and
highly provocative
subject--that
of Fred Leuchter Jr., an expert in "humane
executions" who became a dupe
for neo-Nazis. But the film doesn't amount to
much. Introduced in the
film's first
half-hour, Leuchter is revealed as a sincere,
oblivious sort who is making
a living advising various state prisons on how
to improve the quality of
their electric chairs and systems of lethal
injection so that the prisoners
who are executed don't suffer. But then he is
commissioned by notorious
Toronto Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel to go
to Auschwitz and "prove" that
it could never have been used as a gas
chamber to kill hundreds of
thousands of Jews. The rest of "Mr. Death"
details what happened to
Leuchter as a result of that trip.
Morris provides plenty of evidence that
Auschwitz was indeed a
killing field, but his linkages in the film are
suspect. Like Morris, many
will connect Leuchter and his blathering about
how to best to execute a man
with the Nazis and their genocidal ways. But
that's facile; you could just
as clearly argue that proponents of capital
punishment genuinely want to
see justice served, a concept that has nothing
in common with anything the
Nazis did during their reign. And Leuchter,
while interesting at the
outset, is finally revealed as a fool who has
little insight to offer about
anything he's done.
"Mr. Death" has none of the underlying power
of "The Thin Blue
Line," which actually freed a man from jail. At
best, Leuchter's tale might
have made for a decent "60 Minutes"
segment. Stretched to a feature, it's
Morris' most pointless film.
Starring Fred A. Leuchter Jr. Directed by Errol
Morris. Produced by David Collins, Michael
Williams and Dorothy Aufiero. Documentary. A
Lions Gate release. Not yet rated. Running
time: 96 min.
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