Ruptured Review: Autopsy: Through the Eyes of Death's Detectives

Country of origin - U.S.A
Year of release - 1999
Director - Michael Kriegsman 

 

Despite the very shockumentary sounding title of this one it is no way exploitive or sensationalizing. If you go into this one wanting to see the kind of thing you would see in something along the lines of Faces of Gore, Autopsia, Traces of Death or even Faces of Death you will probably be disappointed. Yes this is a documentary that follows an autopsy from start to finish, and at no point does it shy away from displaying extreme gore. But the big difference between this documentary and other more well know real medical gore documentaries is that this one tries to both inform the viewer and interest them in the subject matter. The autopsy that is carried out during the film is that of an elderly woman who has died of natural causes.

The procedure is carried out by the strangely charismatic Dr Thomas Noguchi, who is somewhat well known for carrying out the autopsies on the bodies of Marilyn Monroe and Robert F. Kennedy.

 

 

Dr Noguchi is assisted in the procedure by two other men, one is a forensic pathologist and the other is an assistant. Throughout the autopsy we are clearly talked through what is being done to the cadaver, in such a way that even the most uninformed laymen would be able to understand what is going on. The film is only around 50 minutes long, and held my interest from start to finish. If this documentary sparks your interest I would highly recommend it, however this is definitely not for most people due to the very high level of real human gore it contains. I am going to give this one 8/10, it is a fascinating alternative to the common shockumentary schlock.                             

Buy the DVD here - Autopsy: Through the Eyes of Death's Detectives