Glad That It's Over...

Video Nasty #2

Faces Of Death

1978

BANNED IN 43 COUNTRIES!

NTSC Running Time: 104:39

Directed by Conan Le Cilaire (Real name: John Alan Schwartz.  Conan The Killer, get it?)

Written by Alan Black (Schwartz again.  He is also credited with 2nd Unit Direction as "Johnny Getyerkokov".  Sigh.)

Produced by Rosilyn T. Scott

Starring: Dr. Frances B. Gross (With an umlaut over the "o".  Michael Carr portrays "Dr. Gross".)

Body Count: 12 (That's humans who meet their end onscreen.  Including corpses and animals, the number would be several times larger.)

Availability: On DVD from Gorgon Video as "The Original Faces Of Death 30th Anniversary Edition"

BBFC Status

Why it's a Nasty: Besides the obvious?  Animal cruelty.  Lots of it.

What was cut: 2 minutes 19 seconds of animal footage comprising an illegal dogfight between two pitbulls and a monkey being "beaten to death"...although the BBFC acknowledges that the monkey was not actually harmed.

Current UK status: Received an 18 certificate in cut form on August 22, 2003.  Available from International Trading (UK) Ltd.

Faces Of Death was successfully prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act, making it one of the DPP39.

Fuck this movie.

I never wanted to see Faces Of Death.  Not at all.  Before last night, I had seen the first fifteen minutes at a party as a teenager.  I grew bored and annoyed quickly (It was following a screening of nine inch nails' The Broken Movie which is entirely fabricated but much more realistic and effective), and left the room for a much more important endeavour: finding some weed.  I didn't find any weed, but I had at least saved myself from watching this atrocity.

Or so I thought.

One of the reasons I'm so fascinated by the saga of the Video Nasties is that the films on the list were not selected with any rhyme or reason.  Different distributors had released a wide spectrum of low-budget and obscure films independent of each other, and when the shit hit the fan, it was a matter of chance what had been released and which of those fell afoul of the law.  Well, one of the titles that (rightly) landed on the DPP list was Faces Of Death, and shitfire, I had to watch it.  As I said, I did not want to see it one iota and I am thrilled to have it over and done with.

Presented as a "Mondo" documentary, the film is narrated by Michael Carr as "Dr. Frances B. Gross" (pronounced Groose due to the umlaut I don't know how to type on here).  Dr. Gross claims to have been inspired to show the world the face of Death because of a recurring dream of an endless funeral, and his comments throughout are probably the best thing about the film, as (though it is an actor reading a script) he does try to be helpful and his intentions to help others come to terms with what death is seem sincere.  But it's still an actor reading a script, not a dedicated pathologist following his dreams as he claims.  In what is supposed to be a buildup to the rough stuff, the first half hour is devoted to "hunters", which is an excuse to show footage of slaughterhouses, tribal ritual animal slaughter, the dogfight and monkey-bashing that the BBFC took issue with, and finally, the clubbing of baby seals for their fur, a practice that I believed to be extinct...until I looked up "Hakapik" and learned that the practice is still very much alive.  Wow.

There is footage of autopsies, surgeries, morgues, accident victims.  The most disturbing footage for me was the montage of naked, elderly corpses stacked on morgue tables presented just before Dr. Gross' introduction, and the black-and-white newsreel footage of Nazi holocaust victims, corpses so emaciated they resembled a bundle of sticks being heaved from grave to grave by unidentified workers (whether Axis or Allies, I couldn't tell).

The film is often touted for its' footage of "real" human deaths.  Well, it's true...but don't believe that all of what you see is genuine.  The multiple angle sequences belie the fakery, and Schwartz has admitted to augmenting real footage with reenacted aftermath.  Example: Mary Ellen Brighton was filmed jumping to her death from a building.  The footage of her jump and impact is real, and stands out as the only sequence in the film that feels genuine.  Schwartz augmented this footage with a shot of a "corpse" on the ground in a pool of blood.  Other than Ms. Brighton, the only death shown that appeared real to my eyes was that of a protester at Three-Mile Island who immolated himself in a show of disdain for nuclear power...but even that might have been faked.

Listen, if you're a ghoulish type and you want to see someone die on camera, go to YouTube and type in the words "Budd Dwyer".  The few minutes of footage you find there will be much more disturbing and graphic than anything in Faces Of Death, and you're welcome to it.  Mr. Dwyer's story is quite fascinating and his final act and the reasons behind it are thought-provoking (and inspiring, as both Filter and Rapeman have recorded songs about him).  On the subject of televised suicide, if Mr. Schwartz had been able to track down that of newscaster Christine Chubbuck, that would have impressed me, as her on-camera swan song was performed several years before the advent of the VCR, and the master tape has been given to her family, who have never divulged its' fate.

The film ends with a "birth" (a woman on a table is shown from the neck up moaning, followed by the sound of a baby crying, wow, what verisimilitude) and the closing credits roll over life-affirming scenes and music, supposedly helping us see how wonderful it is to be alive and how we need not fear death since we've now witnessed so much.  Sorry, fellows, that doesn't fly.  Faces Of Death was made by sick fucks for sick fucks, and having so much of it be faked just makes me feel even more animosity towards the makers.  I suppose there are folks who really appreciate Faces, and others who think it is a "fun" movie (like parties comprised entirely of teenage boys who don't know where to get good weed), but I am not one of them.  I urge you not to waste your time, and again, if you really feel the need to watch someone die, look up Pennsylvania State Treasurer R. Budd Dwyer, a man who wanted you to witness his death.

Whew!  Thank goodness that's over!  I'm now getting ready to get to the good stuff.  The next one will be lots more fun, I promise.  I've got a few that I own that are old favorites...and loyal reader Sally (that's her over there with Robert Englund) just gave me a DVD copy of The Burning in all its' uncut glory.  Thanks, Sally!  Until next time, I'll keep on keeping on.  Because my name's Justin.  JustinCase.