In Theaters | New DVD | Find Reviews | Thumbs Up

Review by Bruce Cantwell Errol Morris's best documentary to date paints the portrait of the son of a prison guard who went to work with his Dad and came to understand the human relationships between prisoners and guards. Somewhat of a social misfit, he fell into repairing, then designing and manufacturing execution equipment that did its job right the first time with minimal trauma for prisoners, guards, wardens and witnesses. Leuchter's descriptions of malfunctioning electric chairs and their grisly consequences are morbidly fascinating but the movie really kicks into gear when Leuchter makes the pivotal decision of his life. Erich Zündel, a German neo-Nazi living in Canada was prosecuted for spreading false news in the pamphlet "Did Six Million Really Die?" Because Leuchter was the closest thing America (maybe the world) has to a gas chamber expert, he was approached by Zündel's defense team to scrutinize the Polish death camps. Perhaps because he truly believed in the freedom of speech issue on trial or because he was flattered to be considered an expert witness in such an important case, he decided to perform an investigation and issue a report (which found no evidence of gas chambers at Auschwitz, Birkenau or Majdanek). This decision (to perform an investigation to the best of his abilities and present the results) forever changes Leuchter's life and raises an interesting question. are there crimes so unthinkable (denying the Holocaust publicly) that no attempt at a defense can be tolerated? Leuchter's business is effectively shut down by the protests of Holocaust activists until, out of desperation, he turns to the only people who still accept him (neo-Nazi groups) to present his report not as a champion of their cause but because what he believes to be true supports their beliefs.

Search Now: