(1978)
Director: Conan Le Cilaire (John Alan Schwartz)
Writer: Alan Black (John Alan Schwartz)
Ah Faces Of Death, a film more notorious than it probably deserves to be. That's not to say that I don't like Faces Of Death. In fact, one could say that I love Faces Of Death. But let's face facts, it's corny as hell.
If you've never seen Faces Of Death, you've no doubt heard of it. Made in the style of the many "mondo" films of the 60's and 70's, Faces Of Death is a documentary style film that showcases scenes of "real" deaths. It's narrated by a supposed expert in the study of death, Dr. Frances B. Gross. As the story goes, Japanese investors were dissatisfied with the amount of death in the original cut. Most of the scenes in the original version were just of the aftermath of accidents taken from news archive footage and the investors wanted to see the whole incidents. As that footage wasn't available, the makers of the film decided that they would fill in the gaps with staged scenes and try to match it to the original footage as closely as possible. The results vary, but most of it is actually pretty good and it's not always easy to tell what is real and what is not.
It's easy to see why Faces of Death was banned by the BBFC. The scenes of real animal cruelty are enough to make anyone consider becoming a vegitarian. And any film that purports to show scenes of actual death is just asking to be banned. In fact, being banned in multiple countries certainly helped the film garner it's infamous reputation. Oddly though, a full 30 minutes were cut out of the film's British release even before it was banned. Included in this 30 minutes is the entire execution scene that is displayed so prominently on it's cover.
In my youth, Faces Of Death was the stuff of legend. The VHS teased and terrified me at local video stores with it's lurid cover art and claim that it had been "Banned In 46 Countries!". Or 43. Or 40. The number changed with every release and was likely a bold-faced lie. If you had seen it, you were allowed to wear that like a badge of honor. I, unfortunately, was not one of those people. I didn't have the pleasure of seeing Faces Of Death until I was in college. By that time, it had become common knowledge that a lot of the scenes in the movie were faked and I doubted that it would hold up to it's reputation. Many scenes were certainly difficult to sit through, but I'll admit that I was pretty underwhelmed on my first viewing. I felt like it was interesting, but it's not really the type of film that ages well. But like any good film, it stuck with me. I never forgot about it. And over the years, it's really grown on me. I love the dramatic flair of our narrator, Dr. Gross. I love the cheezy heavy-handed environmental message that crescendos with a man burning alive to the tune of "Jesus Doesn't Live Here Anymore". I love the morons that get attacked by a bear. I even love when it goes completely off the rails with a "real" seance. And of course, the ending credits where we're reminded of the miracle of life through stock footage and bad music. Faces Of Death is a dumb movie. But somehow, it manages to do what very few movies can. And that is to pull off both dumb and disturbing in equal measure. And you have to give it credit for that.
Enjoyability: 10 out of 12 beers
Quality: 8 1/2 out of 10 skulls
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