ANY MAN’S DEATH

Leon Abrams, an aggressive political reporter and former Vietnam war correspondent, is sent to remotest Africa by his blustery editor to flesh out the story behind some cryptic photographs. Not surprisingly, his latest assignment triggers hallucinatory flashbacks from his war-day coverage. The viewer suffers, too, from having to see these graphically horrible images of death and carnage explode in his skull, as scenes literally drip with blood.

The disoriented journalist finds himself in a tiny village in the Kalihari desert. He still doesn’t have any clue as to what he is looking for, other than the photographer (a professional acquaintance) who snapped the curious photos. The townsfolk, a sullen and swarthy lot of Germans, are friendly, but menacing.

In the course of his meandering investigation, Abrams discovers that the partially obscured figure in the photograph is an aging ex-Nazi doctor, a Mengele type who, after hiding out in Paraguay, is now living in hermetic isolation in the desert. The old man, himself Jewish, has been feverishly experimenting with poisonous snakes for decades, convinced he is on the brink of discovering an anti-cancer serum that uses the deadly venom to kill malignant cancer cells. Once responsible for the deaths of thousands, he feels he can justify his wrongs by doing good now. However, will the reporter expose the old man, possibly jeopardizing future generations?

Thus, Abrams is faced with a moral dilemma. Should he expose the doctor, or let him continue to perform research that will ultimately benefit mankind? Do not think the dilemma is resolved using Judeo-Christian values, for there is not even a hint of them in the film, but, in fact, quite the opposite. Man’s capacity for good and evil is stated as not always a choice, but as sometimes genetic. Nor is forgiveness ever mentioned at any point, another anti-Christian message.

Worse still are scenes in which partakers of Satanic rituals drink the blood and eat the flesh of a sacrificed animal. With its hard-to-follow story about a flourishing Nazi German colony hidden in the hills doing cancer research, the movie is one no one will want to see. Blood and guts abound, witchcraft and Satanism run rampant, and profanity and obscenity permeate the confusing script of ANY MAN’S DEATH.