Documentary HOF Part 2

Far from it from what I understood of what Rick Worley was saying. He was illustrating that there is still a great deal of rage against Polanski, and his reputation still in tatters, despite the fact that the person he abused has long since forgiven him and claims that the media and attention-seeking officials did far more damage to her. He was questioning mob justice - the fact that it's unending, and the punishment outweighs the crime. That the whole reason we have law to begin with is because mob justice is unfair and goes against the tenets of society. The mob has turned on Polanski and Allen, and despite Polanski being guilty and Allen not, they've both been punished to an extent that far outweighs any crime they may have committed.

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Mr. Death (1999) -

This documentary was on IFC a lot in the early 2000s and I only caught bits and pieces of it, so it was nice to finally watch it in its entirety. I've been wanting to do this ever since I made a realization that Fred Leuchter is not far off from being a real-life version of Walter White from Breaking Bad. To summarize that TV series in case you haven't seen it, Walter is a brilliant scientist resigned to working as a chemistry teacher who becomes diagnosed with cancer. He starts manufacturing crystal meth to secure his family's future, but he becomes drunk with the power and validation of his intelligence his new job provides, severing his meaningful relationships in the process. The more renowned Walter becomes, the easier it becomes for him to live with the suffering his creation causes. When you replace Walter's day job with the disrespected and validation-starved one of "execution consultant," crystal meth with the Leuchter Report and Walter's new coworkers with Ernst Zündel and David Irving, it's all a bit familiar, isn't it? Is all this a bit pedantic? Probably, but it’s also a testament to how well Errol Morris proves that truth is stranger than fiction. Moreover, this is one of his best movies for how it delves into the roots of denial and how far some are willing to stoop to be recognized.

Morris may be my favorite documentary filmmaker for how authentic and unvarnished he makes every image and word seem, how he makes his subjects reveal who they really are and for how he makes the ordinary extraordinary. His signature on-camera interviewing style works just as well as it always does, as does how he lets the objects do the talking. The repeated footage of Leuchter scraping rocks off the gas chamber walls, for instance, has a much different tone near the end of the movie than when we first see him do it. I also like the sly and seemingly invisible way Morris makes the movie about something else, i.e., about how any of us and not just the likes of Leuchter, Zündel, etc. can succumb to denial. Whether you believe in capital punishment or not, you must admit there’s dark humor in the fact that prison systems no longer sought Leuchter's help after his report on state-sponsored executions went public. It ends up being a documentary that's enlightening and disturbing in equal measure about how deep the denial well goes. Oh, and Leuchter drinks 40 cups of coffee and smokes six packs of cigarettes a day? Crawling down that well must carry some health benefits (which I personally hope to never benefit from).

Contains some spoilers

Man. You can be so intelligent in one small field of enterprise or knowledge, and completely lacking and naïve in others - which I think is one of the lessons of Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. I had no idea of where this film was going to go, so when we segued from Leuchter's repair and design of various execution equipment to the Holocaust I became particularly uncomfortable. That discomfort got a lot worse as Leuchter's clumsy experiments and general lack of historical awareness led him down a very narrow road to nowhere (that nowhere being encamped with Holocaust denialism.) To tell you the truth, I didn't mind that man until that point, and even after he ended up amongst a bad crowd, his personality kept making him sympathetic. He didn't seem like a bad person - just misguided, a little narcissistic and somewhat silly. He shouldn't have gone anywhere near this field of study, even with his scant experience with gas chambers. Footage of him chipping away at bricks in Auschwitz was particularly painful.

So, with the general way this documentary was presented, I found the opening credits to be headache inducing and a little disorientating - the flashing lights and blue colours kind of aggravating. I had no problems after that - and the photographic and video stuff shot inside execution chambers had my morbid curiosity going. That "ghost photo" of the electric chair in Tennessee was a definite sign that Leuchter is willing to put his scientific mind on pause for flights of fancy - but I love "ghost photos" even though I'm never convinced by them. I just love to be a little spooked - so there must be a percentage of me that does allow for the supernatural. Leuchter narrates his own story, and he has plenty of rope with which to hang himself with, which is kind of fitting really. When students first watched this film by Errol Morris they thought it was espousing a Holocaust denial point of view - but Morris though Leuchter's flaws were self evident. I think you have to factor in for people who aren't really intelligent - because I can imagine others taking the wrong message away from it without the extra emphasis Morris put on the disproving of Leuchter's theories.

There was one short film included in this documentary that I'd seen once before, and thank goodness I had, for it allowed me to cover my eyes so I didn't have to witness it again. I find Electrocuting an Elephant, from 1903, pretty distressing - but it does confront you with the naked truth of execution through means of electricity and how horrifying it really is. I'm sickened by the film, and although the elephant in question, named "Topsy" was a troublesome beast in captivity, I still don't think it deserved to be the subject of such an unusual method of being put down. To me, when I watched the video, it seemed that it suffered - but I might be wrong. I hope I am wrong, and Topsy was rendered unconscious immediately. A short warning before we see the footage might offer some of us animal lovers a chance to choose whether we watch it or not, but I guess if we're watching a film about execution methods and the Holocaust that was made in the '90s Morris may assume that we have the constitution to handle it.

So, all in all, a film that really gives us some insight into Fred Leuchter's thought processes - the part where he delivers a speech to a bunch of Holocaust deniers - obvious pride on his face - is pretty damning. Like Prince Andrew, he probably walked away from his interviews thinking he'd done a good job and that people would see how persecuted he was. In the same kind of way he has a blinkered view of history, he also doesn't realise that what he's said is pretty damning. As I think about him, any sympathy I may have had initially is draining away. This is exactly the kind of guy who would have risen to a high level within the SS during those dark days in Germany - somebody who doesn't flinch when it comes to execution, and somebody who approaches the subject in a very analytical manner, without any empathy. Oh sure - he's against torture, but he seems to lack that feeling most of us have when it comes to taking another life. Good for executions on a technical level - but bad for virtually anything outside of the lab or engineering office. What Morris does is allow us to see that very clearly, with Leuchter's own words.

I think I will be watching Mr. Death over the weekend. Unfortunately, I don't have a computer, so I will be watching it on my phone. Is this a phone friendly film? I won't be missing out on any fabulous cinematography, will I?

I had a similar limitation yesterday and had to watch it on a tablet, so I don't think that will affect your enjoyment.

Also, as PHOENIX mentioned, it includes a short film of an elephant being electrocuted and a couple of scenes with possibly seizure-inducing flashing lights. Sorry for not warning all of you earlier.

Awwww! I have avoided video of that electrocution for so long. Damn.

Please tell me that's not how you watched Lawrence of Arabia

Good thing I didn't join.

lol No, I have a nice sized tv as well. Just no computer.

Shoo, I'm relieved

If you like Morris, check out "American Dharma"

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https://www.youtube.com/c/LoyalOpposition

I knew when I saw this in the noms it would be tough to beat for me. One of my favorite documentaries ever. It just gives me all the feels about goodness and pure Christianity in this very broken world.

I really try not to put people on too high of a pedestal, because all of us are so deeply flawed. It is very hard not to look at this man's life through rose colored glasses though.

This doc is so pure to me that I really don't even have much to say. The quietness and grace that is shown towards neighbor here brings me to tears at multiple points. The picture above is a scene that I will absolutely never forget because to me it is such a beautiful portrait of how we are called to live but rarely do.

I really love this doc, what a wonderful rewatch.

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Letterboxd

This is a really well done doc but I was hoping to love it more because of some of the things I had heard about it. Because of the topic this movie could not be more uncomfortable to watch. We are constantly hearing things for an hour and a half that most of us can't spend more than five minutes talking about. What makes the doc so interesting is that as soon as we are given a point a view about one of the people we are immediately given an opposing view point. It is a very interesting way to tell the story because it keeps the viewer guessing. However at the end of the day we are left with a man who has done incredibly horrific things even if he didn't do ALL that he was accused of. It's a fine line that doesn't end up mattering to me when I step back and look at the big picture. Very well done movie and the subject matter is very disturbing but compelling. It is a look at how a seemingly normal guy can be doing the most unimaginable things.

I copied my old review of this movie because it really does capture how it made me feel both watches. I don't have anything to add of substance but Arnold Friedman is obviously quite the monster even if everything else is difficult to sort out.

Just a reminder: if that Woody Allen documentary is going to be reviewed on Movieforums, then it really does need to be uploaded to Tmdb / Letterboxd so a page for MoFo can exist.

King Of Kong:



This is the type of doc that I absolutely love watching these days. I think idiosyncratic characters is why most of us love watching documentaries. When that comes in a package of harm and crime, like Capturing The Friedmans or Dr Death, it can make me feel guilty that I am being entertained.

When it come in the package of King Of Kong however, I can feel fine about how entertaining people can be. There is a plethora of idiosyncrasies in King Of Kong and I love every bit of it.

This watch took me on a fairly deep you tube dive of interviews afterwards. It’s very interesting to see how much stock is put into these records, that most of us could care less about. Too bad we never had a follow up where these two actually go head to head. Or maybe it’s better this way, where the drama of it all can hang there, and give us the entertainment I enjoyed so much this watch.

By the Way, Woody Allen is Innocent -

I have two words to describe this documentary, video essay, whatever you want to call it: exhaustive and exhausting. In regard to the former, Rick Worley deserves credit for doing his research. With all the articles, news clips, sound bites, etc. he unearthed, he could easily make researcher an additional title along with cartoonist and film critic. If anything, this video is valuable in the discussion of the corruption found in cancel culture. As we've seen with Aziz Ansari, Richard Stanley, Dan Price and many others, it often results in mob justice, not to mention punishment that does not fit the crime. Unfortunately, the documentary's reliance on arguments that are immaterial or that have pseudologic weakens its aims, as does how it earns my other descriptor (more on that later).

Does Mia Farrow have questionable adoption and parenting methods? Do Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn have a healthy marriage? Does Woody Allen have strong working relationships with his performers? The documentary leads me to believe I should answer "yes" to all of the above, but I don't think this means we should doubt everything Mia says, believe everything Woody says or vice versa, much less agree with the title. The same goes for Worley's argument that we should trust Allen and Polanski because their work does not promote what they are accused of, which is also suspect for how Worley bullies those who choose not to watch it, and I say this even though the Hachette Book Group affair scares me as much as it scares Worley. There's also the objectionable treatment of Ronan, who can't be blamed on how Mia's parenting may or may not have affected him, and while he and the other MeToo followers are not right 100% of the time, the suggestion that they are in it for the fame, fortune, camaraderie, etc. is a classic straw man. Besides, blame the excess of media outlets rather than Ronan on his countless news magazine appearances because it's the rule for someone in the headlines to make several such appearances and not the exception. As for why the documentary is exhausting, it sort of plays out like a feature length version of the "Mr. X" scene from JFK (and it's just as easy to pick apart, I might add). That is a great scene, but I would not want to watch a 150-minute version of it and not just because it offers little room to breathe. I also find Worley's attempts at adding comic relief smug and sophomoric. Again, the video provides legitimate criticism of cancel culture, and even though Worley doesn't go far enough, I appreciate that he attempts to give Mia and Ronan credit where credit is due. It still makes me thankful that "trial by video essay" is not a thing.

I’m mostly agreeing with the assessments of the Woody Allen doc, but I am still waiting to hear how exactly he has been punished or canceled. Still feels like a figment of our cultures imagination.

I can't answer that of course. But I know Takoma won't watch his movies, so that's a cancellation of one!

I suppose we are all cancelled in some way then. Maybe you are joking? If not, is that a fair assessment of “cancel culture”?

King of Kong



I feel like Documentaries in which the subject matches an interest I have a deep appreciation for only helps how much I can enjoy it. This makes me want to go an arcade right away. The Mitchell vs. Weibe stuff is just super intriguing to me. First was crazy how Weibe goes to Finland to break the record and then all of the sudden Mitchell sends in a tape to get his high score back. The fact Mitchell couldn't go head to head vs. Steve is really quite pitiful. The guy travels across the country and Mitchell wouldn't meet him 10 miles to play was appalling. This was a very well structured documentary too. Certainly one of my favorite documentaries of all time. I play in the World Tecmo Championship and while I am nowhere near an elite player stuff like this gets me pumped for that too.

Same here. Career-wise, he's doing just fine. This may be common knowledge, but he released movies in 2019 and 2020 and is working on his fiftieth one right now. Also, as for his memoirs that Hachette decided not to publish, he just found another publisher.