The word "documentary" used to strike fear and boredom in the hearts of movie-goers, and with good reason. For years, documentaries
were strictly information, told in the most straight-forward manner possible. If regular movies were comic books, documentaries were textbooks: interesting if you happen to like that subject, but not much mass appeal. Then someone decided -- get this -- that entertainment and information were not mutually exclusive. This gave rise (I hope you'll pardon the all-to-brief history of documentary filmmaking) to documentaries that are every bit as fascinating as they are thought-provoking. Films like "Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr." It's hard to go wrong with a title like "Mr. Death," and director Errol Morris uses the sort of music you'd hear in a Hollywood summer blockbuster, accompanied by opening credits that hide the fact you're watching a documentary, to draw you immediately into this story of a man who designed execution equipment for a living.
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