On the surface, the documentary feels like it's going to follow in the footsteps of other documentaries and shockumentaries before it that give you an inside look into the lives of the dead and the coroners that work with them; setting us up for an unflinching, graphic face-to-face encounter with the many faces of death that spells like a gruesome car crash - you want to look away, but you can't.However, unlike shockumentaries such as Traces of Death, Faces of Gore, or shorter documentaries like The Act of Seeing With Ones Own Eyes, this doesn't explicitly focus on the medical aspect of working with the dead; specifically that of autopsy examinations. Instead, it focuses on the inner workings of what goes on behind the scenes - from how they work to find people connected to the deceased to what happens to the deceased and their personal effects if nobody comes forward to claim them or be of next of kin. The documentary isn't overly graphic either, unlike the aforementioned titles. So, if scenes like that make you uncomfortable, they're very few and far between.Filmed in real time, you feel like you're part of the production team and investigation crew as they race the clock to bring some closure to the dead. By the time the credits roll, it may leave you feeling heavy and dreary, or, perhaps, with a new appreciation for life itself. While it may not be life changing or cause existential dread, it may give you something to think about as you go about your day to day life.

Where would contemporary documentaries be without the Michael Moore style of self-promotional agitprop, or without PBS's Burns Brothers' solemnly historical talking heads and recitations form of docudrama? Well, back to straightforward journalistic techniques, of the sort employed in the outstanding 70 minute long 2003 documentary from directors Grover Babcock and Blue Hadaegh, A Certain Kind Of Death. And no, this is not the exploitative pseudo-documentary style that was pioneered in camp classics like Faces Of Death nor Mondo Cane. Instead, the directors hew to the early style of Errol Morris, albeit even more starkly. Their technique- of emotional distancing, by having employees of the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office simply tell how they do their jobs when dealing with kinless decedents, rather than telling how they feel, gives the audience an unbiased 'in' to the rather rote way municipalities deal with the hundreds of annual unclaimed dead- what used to be referred to as 'going to potter's field.'The film follows the deaths of three single white middle-aged men in 2001….The inurement and occasional humor displayed by the people who clean up after the dead bodies, sift through their belongings, research their lives, and try to find next of kin, is to be expected in government work (as I was once a civil servant), where the roteness of civil servitude even less interesting than this often holds sway, but especially when one has to deal with about 2000 such cases a year. And when we see the bodies- naked, emotionless, with welts, bruises, or partly rotted and decomposed portions of their forms (these stiffs are called 'decomps' in the parlance), inurement seems a wholly reasonable approach one should take to such tasks, such as slinging the dead by their four limbs, like a shot deer (something I recall watching my own dead dad's body enduring)….The utter lack of staginess and pretense makes this film invaluable, as both a research tool and a warning to those who have disconnected from life. The soundlessness as people do their jobs simply listing the contents of a life that is done is sad, yet not depressing. The only intervention of music in the film comes in a brief moment as an ice cream truck passes by during filming, and at the credit sequence that ends the film. Greensleeves is played, and its musical singularity only multiplies its emotional impact, especially since the film ends near Christmas, signifying it connects to the Resurrection of Christ sung of in the Greensleeves inspired song What Child Is This?….Yet, A Certain Kind Of Death's value and filmic greatness comes also from restraint- in not going on too long, in not manipulating reality nor the viewer's emotions, and by letting images sink in. Often something interesting or shocking is followed by a several second long 'black screen.' For all the countless deaths shown on film in the century plus the medium has existed, none have ever been this realistic, for these deaths are real. Real people die, and are forgotten. The end. Or not, due to this film….This film is an invaluable document of not only a certain time in American history, but these certain people's lives and deaths, as well as those of the county workers who bandy about terms like dispo, decomp, drayage, and harvesting. That it also comments mightily on the living- such as the fact that all the most menial tasks of destroying and burying remains falls to black and Latino workers, makes this film even more valuable. It's no wonder this film won a Special Jury Prize at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. It is gritty yet poetic, and reinforced by its blackout moments, it forces cogitation upon the viewer, then, upon resumption, shuttles them along. The irony implicit in the film is that the very thing that made these three dead men perfect subjects for the film- their utter disconnect from the rest of humanity, and the genericness of their lives and deaths, is the very thing that assures that they will always be known, at least by documentary film buffs. That this says more of the living than the dead is precisely why A Certain Kind Of Death, with its Joe Friday 'Just the facts!' approach is a great documentary, and should be viewed and appreciated for many years to come.

I found this to be an extremely moving film. It's an unflinching and honest look at the work that is involved when a john doe is found. I admired the lengths that these county workers had to take to give each person a name and to handle their affairs, if any were left. I felt that the workers did a very good job. i imagine that a certain amount of stoicism would be necessary to be able to see complete strangers at their most vulnerable. the film is very visceral and graphic in how we see the journey of each body from beginning to end and it was shocking to see how many bodies passed through the cremation process, and not just the three that the filmmakers followed. i was very sad to see the belongings of Mr. tanner sitting anonymously at the auction. there was a desire to be able to speak up and give the belongings a name and a history from where they came. i admired the way that they took the time to shred all of his checking account papers, to give him some protection, even after death. it's a very very admirable film and i would highly recommend it to anyone who wonders what happens when someone dies alone.

This is one of the best docs I have seen! Quiet and contemplative, it moves at a 'real time' pace. Highly informative, you feel as if you are in the movie via staring at the clock, or people's desks as they go about the long, drawn out process closing the deceased's affairs. That is what you want in a doc, right? This will also inspire you to get it together regarding paperwork, funeral arrangements etc. so the city/county/state doesn't have to. (It was creepy watching strangers go through a person's effects.) This movie will inspire me at least to do my dishes everyday, because you never know, it may be my last!