The Face
of Evil
by David
Tosco, Director
First Run / Icarus Films, Brooklyn NY,
2006
52 mins., col. / b&w
Sales: $390; rental/VHS: $100
Distributors website: http://www.frif.com.
Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens
Department of Art
University of Northern Iowa
Website: www.bobolinkbooks.com
ballast@netins.net
This is a fascinating film about physiognomy,
the study of peoples outward appearances
(facial features, in particular) for the
purpose of learning more about their inner
qualities, such as their personality traits.
There is a long tradition of this, tied
largely to superstition, going back at
least to Ancient Greece, a tradition that
has often merged with other interpretive
pseudo-sciences, such as phrenology, palm
reading, graphology, eugenics and anthropometrics.
The focus of this film is on certain misguided
efforts by sociologists, criminal prosecutors
and others to catalog literal "earmarks"
among those whom they believed to be "born
criminals," "inferior races,"
and other "degenerates"to
define, as foretold by its title, "the
face of evil." This subject is not
merely historical. It has once again come
to the forefront because of the screening
policies of Homeland Security and other
law enforcement agencies at airports or
in traffic stops (the current term is
"racial profiling"). As is too
soon forgotten, it is a threat to human
rights for any society to assume that
a "terrorist," "drug dealer"
or "child molester" can reliably
be spotted by his or her appearance. The
Nazis thought otherwise, as this film
discusses in detail: In 1943, the German
police arrested Bruno Ludke, a semi-literate,
feeble-minded peasant whom they accused
of necrophilia. During extended periods
of police interrogation, it was claimed
that Ludke had confessed to 51 separate
murders (committed over a period of 20
years), making him the worst serial killer
in history. Emboldened by what they considered
to be brilliant crime solving, and aided
by their adroit use of physiognomic stereotypes,
the authorities continued to interrogate
Ludke, in response to which he allegedly
confessed to and then acted out, at the
various crime scenes, the details of various
murders. Yet he was never prosecuted.
Instead, Ludke was adjudged insane and
committed to a hospital. During his confinement,
numerous photographs were taken and measurements
made (including a live plaster cast of
his entire head) of his mental and physical
features. In 1944, while still confined,
he purportedly died by injection in the
process of being subjected to medical
experimentation. This film is strengthened
by its use of interviews with criminologists,
sociologists, historians and, last but
not least, Ludkes relatives. Its
effect is also heightened (be warned,
it is not always easy to watch) by excerpts
from a German documentary about the Ludke
case, vintage photographs and film footage,
and a clutch of gruesome artifacts. At
the films end, one does not know
for certain if Ludke was guilty or innocent
of the murders (whether one or more)nor
can one stop from thinking about the truthfulness
of statements made under torture and intimidation,
as is in fashion once again.
(Reprinted by permission from Ballast
Quarterly Review, Volume 21 Number
1, Autumn 2007.)