Lake of Fire (2006)

September 30, 2015 10:31 PM

Lake Of Fire is a very dark, very thorough, very good, and very triggering 2.5-hour documentary by Tony Kaye about the politics of abortion in the US in the ‘90s and early aughts. The film captures a range of beliefs about abortion, manifestations of community among the pro- and anti-choice, the blood that has been shed in the war, and (a fraction) of the reality of the process of getting an abortion.

While primarily made up of interviews, the documentary is loosely framed around a few events that occur over a prolonged range of years:

• The passage of the (now overturned) “Women’s Health and Human Life Protection Act”, the strongest anti-choice law in South Dakota’s history
• The killings of three Florida doctors who provided abortions, inclding graphic pictures of victims, and the trials of the murderers
• The shooting up of a Planned Parenthood in Brookline, Massachussetts
• The evolution of Norma McCorvey (“Jane Roe”) from Pro- to Anti-choice, and her conversion to Christianity
• Various protests at abortion clinics, a March For Life, periodic check-ins with Randall Terry, speeches by political and religious figures, and a rock concert
• The aftermath of the bombing of an abortion clinic by Eric Rudolph
• Two very graphic trips to abortion clinics that bookend the meat of the film.

Below, I provide a breakdown of the individuals that IMDb credits as appearing in the film. As good as Lake of Fire, a number of interviewees don’t appear to be credited on screen. This makes it hard to tie all of their players to their statements and positions, but I’ve done my best to split them up. I don’t recall seeing folks with (?) next to their names, so I’ve position them using relatively uninformed guesses. Many of these folks don’t really fit into the simple binary of pro- and anti-, but quite a few do.

Some of these interview subjects are only present for a few sound bytes despite their prominence while others are given relatively large swathes of screen time despite being minor players. I could have used more Frances Kissling and less random-protestor-Andrew-Cabot, but Kaye makes it all work very well. (The juxtaposition of Cabot and Hill makes the former seem all the scarier.) The framing with the visits to the abortion clinics is particularly well done, and the entire Norma McCorvey section is gripping.

Interviewed for the film

• “Pro-choice”
  • Reproductive rights pioneer Bill Baird
  • University of Florida Professor and Methodist Minister Dallas Blanchard, one of the authors of Religious Violence and Abortion: The Gideon Project
  • Dr. John Bayard Britton, who was murdered by Paul Hill for performing abortions. (GQ profile by Tom Junod)
  • MIT Linguistics Professor Noam Chomsky
  • Author Frederick Clarkson
  • Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz
  • Alabama (Now Arkansas) Sociology Professor Kevin Fitzpatrick (?)
  • Refuse and Resist! activist Mary Lou Greenberg
  • David Gunn, Jr., son of David Gunn
  • Catholics for Choice president Frances Kissling
  • Pepperdine Constitutional Law Professor Douglas Kmiec
  • Journalist David Kranz, Political Editor at the Sioux Falls Argus (?)
  • Nurse, Clinic Bombing Victim, and activist Emily Lyons
  • Kate Michelman, the (now former) President of NARAL Pro-Choice.
  • Bioethicist and Lawyer Ellen Moskowitz
  • Author Jerry Reiter
  • Brookline Planned Parenthood Security Guard Richard Seron, who was present during John Salvi’s attack on the clinic.
  • Princeton Bioethics Professor Peter Singer
  • SUNY Albany Bioethics Professor Bonnie Steinbock
  • Lawyer Sarah Regle Weddington, who represented Norma McCorvey in Roe v. Wade.
  • Author Burt Wilson
  • Michele Wilson (?)
  • Lots of protestors
  • Anonymous women getting abortions, the doctors administering them, and the attending nurses
  • An unidentified rock band (Related Ask from 2008)


• “Anti-choice”
  • Activist Andrew Cabot
  • Reverend Flip Benham, the activist who brought Norma McCorvey into the anti-choice camp while the he was the director of Operation Rescue National.
  • Anti-abortion activist, former KKK member, and convicted child molester (post-film) John Burt, who served as a spiritual advisor to both Paul Hill and abortion clinic bombers Matt Goldsby and Jimmy Simmons, and was somewhat affiliated with Michael Griffin.
  • Critic and writer Nat Hentoff
  • Paul Hill - during the course of filming, Hill murdered Dr. John Britton and was subsequently executed. (GQ profile by Tom Junod)
  • South Dakota State Representative Roger Hunt, the prime sponsor of the “Women’s Health and Human Life Protection Act”.
  • Reverend Pat Mahoney, of the Christian Defense Coalition
  • Norma McCorvey, better known as “Jane Roe” of Roe v. Wade.
  • Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry
  • Reverend David Trosch
  • National Abstinence Clearinghouse president Leslee Unruh
  • Father Norman Weslin, head of Lambs for Christ
  • California Operation Rescue founder Jeff White
  • McCorvey’s friend Connie
  • Lots of protestors

Archival Footage and Public Events

• “Pro-Choice”
  • Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders
  • Psychiatrist Phillip Resnick (?)


• “Anti-Choice”
  • Republican Presidential Candidate Pat Buchanan
  • Murderer Michael F. Griffin
  • Republican Presidential Candidate Alan Keyes
  • Cardinal Roger Mahony, Archbishop of Los Angeles
  • Planned Parenthood shooter John Salvi

posted by Going To Maine