Ok I just finished Mr Death The Rise and Fall of Fred A Leuchter Jr.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=654178281151939378#
This was the only way I found to include the link without embedding the full movie
"if they go in with blinders on they see what they want to see"
Full disclosure:
My father's family fled Germany and Switzerland in the 1750's because of religious persecution (they were anabaptists).
My mother's family acknowledges no history before reaching American shores in the early 1900's, whether genetically Gypsy or Jewish or some other form of unwanted minority they left because they felt they had to, and my Grandfather's uncle used 7 different passports to smuggle Jews out of Austria.
My personal standards of conscientious objection, political neutrality, and belief that honoring national symbols is an unacceptable form of idolatry are shared with
a group targeted by the Nazi's.
So I am no where near an unbiased audience on the subjects of ethnic and religious persecution.
I am particularly opinionated when it comes to the shear banality of of human evil, and this film is full of it. Morris captures the essence of the bland everyday man who trudges through existence without regard for what he involves himself in. A man who's own words reveal no guiding principles other than a determination to be effective and a willingness to be bought.
As a commentator says Leuchter just wanted "to be someone". He wanted his opinion to count in something important. Then once he's picked his course he's in it with his whole mind and no room for doubt. He's like many young boys who were lead down a path beyond their comprehension because they wanted a brown shirt and a slogan.
"the first Holocaust deniers where the Nazis because they refused to admit to themselves what they were doing"
Enough about the subject and on to the structure.
So much of this reminded me of "The Fog of War" (far and away my choice for best Doc). The controversial subject, the reliance on that subject as narrator with just a hint of an off camera question when it absolutely belongs, and the arc of how an average man gets involved into matters of worldwide importance.
I believe he makes entirely the right choices when it comes to just how long to follow Leuchter's narrative before subverting it with outside material, and really it is the balance of what gets said and when that consistently makes Morris so impressive.