While Michael Moore deliberately sets out to make political statements in his documentaries by juxtaposing contradictory and ironic imagery, documentary film makers Anne Bohlen, Kevin Rafferty and James Ridgeway simply turn on their cameras cinema verité style and let their subjects crucify themselves with their stupidity and ridiculousness. It's amazing how enthusiastically these ultra-right-wing bigots share their views on camera. All I can figure is that they think that people will be attracted to their cause just by hearing their viewpoint on film.

Basically, Blood in the Face shows a collection of neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan members, and various other Anglo-fascist thinkers gathering in southern Michigan for a convention designed to rally support for the Aryan nation. This occurs in the late 1980s and it’s like a family gathering with a great many middle-aged people who look like potbellied sheriffs from the segregated outh of the '60s. But there’s also a disturbing amount of young people there. One group of four in their 20s is all decked out in Nazi uniforms complete with swastikas, but their fresh and innocent looks soon fade when they begin to speak of the coming race war they believe is inevitable. These people are serious, and they are arming themselves.

Not content with a diverse community, they show a plan for a new America sectioned off by race. If you suspect that these kooks attempting to establish the Aryan nation are planning to take over Idaho and Montana, you're correct. They have those areas circled for their sanctuary.

There's not a lot of background information given in Blood in the Face, outside of a section of archive footage that shows a brief synopsis of the political career and assassination of George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party. Rockwell is a hero to these misfits who also have a little shrine to Adolf Hitler at their gathering.

Mostly what the filmmakers do is take a lot of film of the leaders like former grand dragon of the Michigan branch of the KKK, Bob Miles, explaining how the Anglos are the chosen people, and not those Christ-killing Jews. Very little juxtaposition is used here; however, the filmmakers do insert Holocaust pictures into Blood in the Face while one of the right-wingers is explaining how the Holocaust never happened and that the Jews have exaggerated the facts.

In a sense the filmmakers take themselves out of the equation and let these bizarre people demonstrate their insane ideas on their own. However, I have to think that Bohlen, Rafferty, and Ridgeway were laughing their heads off with some of their editing choices. There is one segment that has a neo-Nazi telling a story and he can't recall a name, so we watch him fumble for such a long time that it becomes obvious that he's practically illiterate.

Another telling scene occurs near the end when one of the Christian Identity ministers is explaining how the Bible supports the idea of Aryan supremacy, explaining that white people are superior because they are the only ones who show "blood in the face." The minister is reasonably well-spoken and well-read, and the filmmakers could have chosen to use a close-up on him that would give a semblance of visual credibility. They make a different choice, and it results in some dark humor. They shoot this as a static medium shot, with an overweight and mentally challenged follower sitting silently and nodding very slightly without appearing to comprehend much of the message. You couldn't choose a better image of the classic "blind follower."

The first time I saw this, I was completely shocked that such people even existed. Then I began to wonder why they would allow themselves to be filmed like this and reveal their plan for racial genocide after the expected Armageddon. It's no secret that these people are militant, hateful, and are arming themselves for battle. They don't hold these facts back in the documentary.
That's a scary thing.

I saw them as the idiots that the documentary filmmakers intended to reveal, as the various speakers spew their hatred and reveal their paranoia. Even more frightening to me was when I discovered that there are some people who will view Blood in the Face and not understand the idiocy of this group. This hit me square in the head back in 1992 when I had a real neo-Nazi in my high-school English class. I hadn't shown the film to that class, but he had seen it on television the night before and was fired up to find out that there were some fellow believers who were getting organized.

Blood in the Face is not an entertaining film, and it does seem repetitious as it gets near the end. However, it is an important film and the best exposé on this particular brand of extremism that you can find. I found this far more disturbing than The Exorcist. Unfortunately, these guys are for real.