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Mr. Death: The Rise & Fall of Fred A. Leuchter Jr. (Widescreen)
- Director: Errol Morris
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Description
Throughout his work, documentary filmmaker Errol Morris has sought out characters lost in their own eccentric worlds, and he has managed to convey their sense of wonder with their passion, be it a topiary gardener arguing the merits of hand shears in Fast, Cheap Out of Control (1997) or astrophysicist Stephen Hawking discussing the origin of the universe in A Brief History of Time (1992). In his most provocative work since The Thin Blue Line (1988), Morris details what happens when this interior dreamscape collides with the hard facts of history. As a young man accompanying his father to work at a state prison, Fred A. Leuchter, a bespectacled mouse of a man, learned how inefficient and inhumane most executions were, and he set out to design and build a better electric chair. Soon he began getting offers from state institutions throughout the country to redesign their electric chairs, along with gas chambers, gallows, and lethal injection machines. He quickly became a renowned expert in capital punishment. When the notorious ****** sympathizer Ernest Zündel was arrested in Canada, he needed an expert witness to corroborate his assertion that the Holocaust was a hoax; and Leuchter soon found himself chiseling chunks from the gas chamber walls in Auschwitz -- on his honeymoon. His illegal samples showed no significant residue of cyanide, so he concluded that the Holocaust did not happen. He soon became a celebrity of the neo-****** set: he testified on behalf of Zündel, gave lectures around the world, and published the Holocaust revisionist tract Leuchter Report. Much to his surprise, his death-machine business began to flounder, his marriage collapsed, and he found himself pursued by Jewish organizations and creditors. This film was screened at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival. Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Features
- Genre: History
- Category: Biography, Law & Crime, Politics & Government, Social History
- Theme: Crimes Against Humanity, Death Row, Fall From Power
- Release Date: July 22, 2003
- Rating: PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned)Rating Opens in New Window - Adult Situations, Questionable for Children
- Studio: Universal Studios
- Director: Errol Morris
- Picture Format: Widescreen
- Run Time: 1 hr 30 min
- Subtitle Language: English, Spanish
- Format: DVD
Additional Information
- DPCI: 246-00-4811
- ASIN: B002HXOIRE
- Catalog #: 11331464
- Item can not be gift wrapped.
Shipping & Policies
- You may return this item to any Target store.Opens in New Window
- Shipping & Delivery InformationOpens in New Window
- Estimated Ship Dimensions : 7.56 inches length x 5.52 inches width x 0.59 inches height
- Estimated Ship Weight: 0.28 pound.
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Expert Reviews
In an act of cinematic self-destruction to rival that of Senator Joseph McCarthy's more public meltdown in Emile De Antonio's Point of Order, Fred Leuchter, self-professed capital punishment expert, not only allows himself to be used by a nefarious Holocaust denier, he also permits director Errol Morris to capture the entire process on film. Hubris or sheer stupidity? It's hard to tell, because for the first third of the film, as Leuchter calmly discusses various modes of execution, it's possible to see him as no more than a zealous professional. Once he falls in with the notorious neo-****** Ernest Zündel, Leuchter's profound devotion to his profession becomes his undoing, though the film never loses its sense of the absurd. The sight of a man spending his honeymoon in Auschwitz taking samples off the walls of the gas chambers to prove that the Jewish inmates were not gassed isn't just tragic; it's laughable. Morris is clearly appalled by Leuchter, but he's also amazingly compassionate about the man's self-delusions. He also knows that a story this good practically tells itself, and he keeps out of the way as much as possible, allowing Leuchter to be his own executioner. Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
