Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred Leuchter Jr. (1999)

   
MR. DEATH: THE RISE AND FALL OF FRED LEUCHTER JR. is a fascinating-
ly tedious documentary about an electric chair designer turned exe-
cution machine designer turned expert witness in a Holocaust denial 
trial.  (And a guy who smokes six packs of cigarettes *and* drinks 
forty cups of coffee a day.  Yowza!)  The film's first half covers 
Leuchter's efforts at engineering more humane methods of, well, 
putting people to death.  (You'll never think of the term "drip 
pan" the same way again.)  The second half sends him abroad, to an-
alyze the remnants of a German concentration camp, and then to Can-
ada, to testify on his finding that there *were* no gas chambers.  
(Bad science and innocent naivete are his undoing.)  Amazing, jaw-
dropping stuff that, alas, still feels stretched thin, even at a 
mere 91 minutes.  At least I didn't fall asleep, which was my re-
action to Errol Morris' *last* one.  And, if nothing else, consider 
it an excellent companion piece to THE GREEN MILE.  Bzzzzzzzzzzt.  
(Rated "PG-13"/91 min.)

Grade: C+

Copyright 2000 Michael J. Legeros
Movie Hell is a trademark of Michael J. Legeros

Originally posted to triangle.movies as MOVIE HELL: March 26, 2000