Country: U.K.
Genre(s):
Documentary
Director: Nick
Broomfield
Cast: Aileen
Wuornos / Nick Broomfield / Steve Glazer
Plot
The details and
exploitation of the criminal case involving Florida serial killer Aileen
Wuornos are investigated, exposing the selfish and profit-minded motives of
both those investigating and supporting Wuornos.
What I Liked
From a purely
entertainment or feel-good standpoint, what’s to like? But documentaries like this aren’t made to
please or delight. Nor is the intention
here to glorify, vindicate, demonize, or indict Aileen Wuornos. In fact, a great deal of the film ignores
making any judgment or explanation for her crimes. The woman and her crimes are incidental to
the film’s portrait of the moral and ethical dangers inherent in a culture of
celebrity. What we are given is a sadly
accurate depiction of the poisoning of capitalism into a morbid circus of
freaks and pinheads looking to capitalize on the media attention sparked by the
violent and bizarre. Most of the people
interviewed in the movie are clearly self-promoting, deceitful, and desperate
individuals who have attached themselves to the Aileen Wuornos case for the
pettiest of reasons. More disgusting
than the rest are those supposedly closest to Wuornos, her adoptive mother
Arlene Pralle (who uses religion to convince Wuornos to plead guilty to murder)
and her attorney Steve Glazer (who seems more focused on using the exposure to
promote his failed music career than giving his client a proper defense). Throw in some police officers too busy brokering
movie deals to speak on camera, a few of Wuornos’ white trash acquaintances, and
one murderous ex-hooker and you’ve got a gallery of disgusting people doing
disgusting things to each other.
What can’t be denied
is that it is an effective and surprisingly fascinating portrait of the ugly
side of American life. On what is
clearly a shoe-string budget, director Nick Broomfield gives us a film full of
unusual characters, human drama, and social commentary that shines a dingy
light on western society.
What I Didn’t Like
In case you couldn’t
tell from the above, there’s not much here to find enjoyable. The blurb on the movie poster above has a
critic calling this film “funny.” Never
once did I laugh. Perhaps the critic
found Glazer’s pathetic attempts at self-promotion amusing. If he were fictional, I might have been
inclined to agree. That he is a real
person made this viewer want to puke.
There’s nothing funny about him or his being involved in the case. It’s all just sad, disgusting, and
horrible. Don’t look for this to be
wrapped up with a message of hope or righteousness. This is a powerful film, but not one that
will leave you feeling any better about the world than when you started
watching.
Most Memorable Scene
The documentary
includes footage from one of Wuornos’ trials where she describes her first
murder. In it, she gives vivid details
of the man raping her and of how she subsequently shoots him. How traumatic the memory of these events are
for her becomes ever more apparent as her story progresses, to the point where
you can see the anger, shame, and loathing play across her face. If she’s lying in this scene, the woman was
an amazing actress. If she isn’t lying,
then the fact that she wasn’t found to have acted in self-defense at least on
this killing is frightening and exasperating.
My Rating: 3 out of 5
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