til Patrick, the sound recordist is shot and killed. Remy immediately reacts by grabbing the camera from Patrick's wounded body to make up for lost footage, while leaving his friend for dead. For Benoit, Patrick's death means little. Remy, on the other hand, is seriously affected. In a heartfelt message, Remy turns the camera on himself and describes Patrick's death as "an occupational hazard," of which Patrick was no doubt aware. Remy vows to continue filming and rationalizes it by saying Patrick would have wanted it that way. Though the movie reveals Benoit to be not only a heartless murderer but also an ignorant, self-loathing, opinionated but, poorly informed fool, the crewmembers are lured in by his way of living. By the conclusion of the film, all three characters are dead, leaving their film as their only legacy. Like Blair Witch, Man Bites Dog is shot in "verite" style, emphasizing a jerky, hand-held camera, inconsistent sound recordings, very few non-digital sounds, and remarkably "realistic" acting. The use of the "verite" style is one of the most important steps the filmmakers take in assuring that the viewers find the film believable. Though the subject itself, a crew following the actions of a serial killer, is absurd the film positions itself firmly within a documentary tradition that is associated with conveying the "truth" or events as they actually occur. Because the documentary form is so meticulously copied, it seems as natural to follow a psychopathic killer, as it does to follow a Heavy Metal band in This Is Spinal Tap.Certainly not the originator of false documentaries, but a master of it, Orson Welles pulled a widely successful hoax in 1938 in his radio broadcast War of the Worlds. Despite the numerous disclaimers throughout the entire broadcast many of the listeners across the nation mistook his elaborate hoax as reality. In his broadcast, Welles was able to overwhelm the repeated disclaimers in hi...
