Errol Morris has certainly 'injected' (pardon my contextural
pun) a bit of energy into the documentary form, even if the
films he makes lie somewhere outside its confines. Mr Death,
with its characteristic visual flourishes and tangents, is no
exception to this, though it does contain excerpts of a 'true'
documentary of Leuchter pilfering 'evidence' from Auschwitz.
Morris' film refutes Leuchter's findings to the point that the
only viewer who would give tham any credence would have to be as
biased as Ernst Zündel, the revisionist publisher whom
Leuchter's testimony defended. One detail of the film sticks out
in my mind... the home movies of young Leuchter accompanying his
father to work at the local prison, where he pals around with
the convicts, and explains how he learned at this tender age to
pick locks, pockets and safes... and with audible smugness
relates that these skills have actually aided him later in life.
The image of this boy nebbish, undoubtedly an outcast and loner
at school and socially, gaining acceptance amongst the convicts
helps to explain why such an intelligent and resourceful person
could be duped by the likes of the pinheaded, hateful Neo-Nazi
Revisionists. Here's a group of 'bad guys' accepting, applauding, listening and agreeing to Leuchter. Of course this
is because his undeniably faulted research supports their own
misguided conclusions. But it mirrors his experiences as a boy
among the convicts and provides a strong psychological
foundation for Leuchter's downfall into his delusional world. I'd recommend this film to anyone who enjoys thought-provoking
cinema, realizing that they are sadly in a minority amongst
filmgoers.