ERROL MORRIS

                Part 1

The best director of documentaries now working is someone you may never have heard of: Errol Morris. His method is simplicity itself. Find an interesting subject, give him a mike, point the camera at him and get out of the way. 

The Thin Blue Line (1988) is a marvel, a landmark film which is generally credited for saving an innocent man from execution. Morris delves into a cop killing in Texas and slowly but surely reveals the truth. This is not to be missed!

Gates of Heaven (1978) is about a pet cemetery in Southern California (where else?). Alternately touching and funny, it presents the pet owners and the cemetery owners, warts and all. This is a genuine slice of Americana. 

There are four stories in Fast, Cheap and Out of Control (1997), all of them way off the beaten path. Presented are a topiary gardener, an expert in blind mole rats, a lion tamer and a robot scientist. All are completely devoted to their particular fields, all are completely fascinating (and terminally weird!) 

And speaking of weird, it would seem from Vernon, Florida (1988) that the town had a strangeness convention and the attendees decided to live there. There is a couple who believes that sand grows, a besotted turkey hunter, and various other bizarre people. Mr. Morris makes this work- he never condescends or interferes.

Former Secretary of State Robert McNamara is the subject of The Fog Of War (2003) in which he discusses his role in the Vietnam War, the Bay of Pigs crisis, and other foreign entanglements that occurred during his time at Foggy Bottom. And Mr. McNamara (85 when the film was made) does a rather good job holding his own. It sounds boring but decidedly is not. And it won Morris his only Best Director Oscar.

Mr. Death (1999) is Fred Leuchter, an expert in execution devices (gas chambers, electric chairs, gallows and lethal injection machines). As if that weren’t strange enough, he is hired to prove there was no Holocaust, and tries to aid that cause. Not recommended for everyone, but strangely fascinating.

Physicist Steven Hawking, the British genius afflicted with ALS, is the subject of A Brief History Of Time (1991). The film details the subject’s life as well as his explanation of cosmology so that laymen can understand it (more of less). Mr. Hawking’s life is also detailed in the biopic The Theory Of Everything (2014) directed by James Marsh. And Eddie Redmayne deservedly won the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Hawking. 

This article contains roughly half of Morris’ films. Next week: the rest of them.

All of the films in this article are available on DVD. They are for grown-ups.