A portrait of the life and career of the infamous American execution device designer Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. Mr. Leuchter was an engineer who became an expert on execution devices and was later hired by holocaust revisionist historian Ernst Zundel to "prove" that there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz. Leuchter published a controversial report confirming Zundel's position, which ultimately ruined his own career. Most of the footage is of Leuchter, working in and around execution facilities or chipping away at the walls of Auschwitz, but Morris also interviews various historians, associates, and neighbors.
Direction
Morris lets Leuchter hang himself with his own words.
Cinematography
Execution device fetish footage vs. Auschwitz rubble.
Editing
Juxtaposition that weaponizes the subject's obliviousness.
Director
Errol Morris
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The 'Leuchter Report' is still cited by deniers today, despite being discredited by actual chemists—including the lab technician Morris interviews who says Leuchter misinterpreted his results.
Morris invented the Interrotron—a device that lets subjects look directly into camera while seeing his face—creating the hypnotic 'confessional' effect that makes Leuchter's obliviousness so mesmerizing.
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