Faces of Death poses many questions as a documentary.  Presenting scenes of death, their causes, locations and reasoning bring about several issues about the series.  (1)  Were the events staged and what impact does staging have on this film?  (2)  How did the narration affect the content and audience?  (3)  What was the purpose of the film’s overall content?

            Due to the film’s content, it is difficult to view it and not question—is this real?                  Bordwell & Thompson (on-line reading from 2/13/02) states “Still, both viewers and filmmakers regard some staging as legitimate in a documentary if the staging serves the larger purpose of presenting information.”  Obviously, a movie such as Faces of Death would have to include some staged events, considering there isn’t always a camera available when death occurs or when a death is happened on unexpectedly. 

            For example, Faces of Death includes a scene where a spelunker has fallen into a cave and a friend has called for help.  The help includes two men and a video camera.  They go down to the fallen spelunker to find that the injuries sustained from the fall have taken his life.  Knowing how emergency response teams work, I know that the scene would not have occurred in such a fashion.  It was most definitely staged.

            This brings up a point that filmmakers must address—what is realistic?  If filmmakers want viewers to believe the event they are watching truly occurred at that time, they must research, prepare and perform the event as it would have happened.  Otherwise, personal knowledge and experiences of the audience will have them believe that the event was staged.  This brings about the filmmakers purpose and the extent to which the filmmaker wants to divulge into staging.

            Faces of Death did include scenes that were not staged, but a majority of the scenes did not include the actual viewing of a human dieing.  One particular non-staged scene was that of the Los Angeles County Coroners Office.  The camera walks us through a room filled with cadavers, while the narrator discusses tragic deaths, autopsies, DNA sampling and the embalming process.  Social actors are performing autopsies at the time of taping and the camera shows the audience the horrific way in which our bodies are cut, sliced, pulled and put back together again—all in effort to find reasoning behind death. 

            Whether the scene was staged or not, the narration helped to guide the video along and keep the viewers wondering what was going to be shown next.  Faces of Death incorporates a voice-of-God commentary and although we never see the narrator he introduces himself as Dr. Frances B. Gross.  We also learn that Dr. Gross is a pathologist.  Whether the audience members choose to believe that Dr. Gross is truly a doctor and or a pathologist is strictly the decision of each individual viewer.  But, by stating a name and profession, it set a standard of credibility for the narrator.  It was necessary to do that because the narrator incorporated rhetorical comments to make viewers question certain causes of death and challenged them to consider their own deaths. 

            For example, one section of the film focused on animal hunters and the different types of them.  Some hunters kill for pleasure while others hunt for food, as a means of population control or for monetary profit.  While witnessing scenes of the four types of hunters, the narrator challenges us as viewers by making us consider what is ethically right and what is not.  Why is it okay to kill animals for one reason, but not another?  In the end, it’s all death anyway.  Right?

            Another example of the narrator’s role is the way in which he caused us to question our own death and to value each day we have because we do not know when it will occur.  During the scene of the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office the narrator comments that we don’t know when our time is up, so we should make the most of our life now.  During a scene that shows a drowning victim being pulled from the water, the narrator discusses how we take life for granted and that stupidity and bad decision-making can prematurely cause death and does do daily. 

            By combining the images with the rhetorical and challenging narration, Faces of Death succeeded in attacking an issue that is always on the backs of people’s minds but seldom discussed, pondered or confronted.  This film explored many causes and types of death and portrayed to its viewers a compilation of what our world involves.  As much as we, as a society, like to “sweep things under the rug,” Faces of Death pulled back that rug and addressed the issue of death head-on.  Death is not always a pretty sight and often we are left wondering why.  Death is not always ethical, but sometimes, who are we to say what’s ethical, especially to a starving man.