Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.
These decisions are not made by one individual. One person coordinates the number of trains which arrive. Another counts heads and provides the amount of product which has arrived in the factory. A third individual, this one a scientist, prepares the gas. The capsules are heated by a fourth person. Some individuals are assigned as traffic cops, moving the product into the room where they will be "cleaned" and others scrape up the mess at the end.
It's not a happy job, but it becomes possible through tunnel vision - you only do your one job, and are not responsible for the decisions of the whole. Suddenly, one comes to realize that it is indeed possible for ordinary, everyday people, like you or me, to commit acts of atrocity against mankind simply by choosing to ignore the big picture. I only push a button. I only cut hair. I only drive a train. I'm not responsible for six million lives. What does this have to do with Fred Leuchter?
His knowledge of the gas chambers was noticed by historical revisionist Ernst Zundel, an anti-Semite on trial for denying the Holocaust. Leuchter is commissioned to go with a small team to Auschwitz to collect and analyze samples of brick and rock.
We're treated to the almost comical image of this innocent clown bumbling his way through this monument of unspeakable atrocity, gleefully chiseling the walls and floors and placing the pieces into small plastic baggies. The fact that he is unqualified in forensics or historical fact does not go ignored - after nearly an hour of screen time where Leuchter presenting his case without argument, Morris begins to introduce those historians, technicians and activists who will attack his theory that the Auschwitz gas chambers did not exist.
Errol Morris
Errol Morris has created several groundbreaking documentaries on subjects as diverse as the theory of quantum physics (the beautifully constructed A Brief History of Time, one of the best films of the '90s) and pet cemeteries (Gates of Heaven). His challenging subject matter has touched on the death penalty once before in his brilliant feature, The Thin Blue Line, a documentary detective story which re-opened the case of death row inmate Randall Adams and, eventually, cleared his name.
The fact that Errol Morris is against the death penalty is not directly addressed in Mr. Death, which makes for a startling companion piece and expansion of his themes
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