Burning Fire

Abortion documentary turns up the heat on the debate | Sam Thielman

After I finish writing this review and go to bed, I will almost certainly have nightmares about Tony Kaye's new film, the unrated documentary Lake of Fire. I hesitantly recommend this movie, with a warning: The worst thing about this film is not the footage itself, but the fact that none of it contains special effects or computer-generated animation.

The subject of Kaye's almost unbearable film is abortion. Since that procedure is legal, one of Kaye's first scenes shows it. A child—a real, living, unborn child—is murdered on screen by a doctor. It's the single most eloquent pro-life argument possible: Kaye films every aspect of the late-term surgery without any regard for modesty or privacy, intercut with glib rationalizations from people in comfortable offices who explain the importance of a woman's right to choose. After the explanation is finished, Kaye returns to the scene of the abortion, where the doctor sorts out pieces of the "pregnancy," most of which are recognizably human and include a tiny, perfect foot.