Mr. Death

Earlier this afternoon I was combing across some HBO On-Demand listings for documentaries and I came across MR. DEATH (1999, dir. Errol Morris). The documentary takes a look at the arguably demented life of Fred Leuchter, a man who makes a living revamping state execution technologies, especially those of electric and chemical descent.
It wasn't until I noticed that the interview of Leuchter looked odd that I realized the documentary was by Errol Morris. Leuchter was staring directly into the camera, and instantly, I thought of Errol Morris. So, I thought I'd examine what makes this documentary distinctly an Errol Morris documentary.
Firstly, the style oozes Errol Morris. When the documentary goes into a scene where Leuchter is showing us the electric chair system he built as well as topics including death by execution, Morris uses canted angles like there's no tomorrow. He also uses slow-motion b-roll to 'amp-up' the dramatic mood of the subject matter.
One of the things that concerned me the most when I was watching this film was how Morris uses the visual track to convey 'narrative' information. When going into Leucther's childhood and his young adult life, Morris had access to 8mm family footage, which has a fairly mysterious quality already. Additionally, it wouldn't be as intense if Morris didn't have it in slow-motion as well. Morris is also a fan of reenactments though he does them in his own style. The characters acting in the reenactment never show their face, which doesn't devoid the authenticity of it as much but adds a little mystery to those sequences. Another thing that Morris does creatively with his 'B-Roll' is that I noticed he uses rescanning. He filmed footage that was displayed on a Tube monitor. This added another layer and quite frankly extended the life of a particular shot.
One of the most intriguing sections is the discussion on how Leutcher met his wife at a coffee shop. This was not the normal romantic encounter. It is obvious that Morris is not portraying Leutcher in the best light and the coffee shop scene reflects that. It cuts to odd shots of Leuchter juxtaposed with cups of coffee in moody lighting. The visuals were abstract and less than straight forward. I think his purpose in doing this was to mystify and accentuate Leutcher's odd character also placed around odd subject matter.
By covering the story of an odd character encompassed by unusual circumstances and utilizing techniques that accentuate those oddities, Morris is able to create a documentary that is both entertaining and disturbing.