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Overkill
Yet a third movie about serial killer Aileen Wuornos — this one a follow-up documentary called "Aileen" — is more about the filmmaker's obsession than about teaching us something new.
By LIZA CICHOWSKI
Offoffoff.com
If you're looking for a review of that movie in which an unattractive and heavier version of Charlize Theron portrays a female serial killer from Florida, this is not it.
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| AILEEN: LIFE AND DEATH OF A SERIAL KILLER |
Directed by: Nick Broomfield, Joan Churchill.
Produced by: Jo Human.
Featuring: Nick Broomfield, Aileen Wuornos.
Related links:
Official site
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If you're looking for a review of a documentary film produced in 1992 about the trial of the real female serial killer, Aileen Wuornos, this is not it either.
If you're looking for a review about a follow-up documentary on Aileen Wuornos's time on death row and her subsequent execution in 2002, then you are in the right place.
In "Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer," we learn about the horrific circumstances that led Aileen to become a highway prostitute and murder seven men. Director Nick Broomfield interviews Aileen's estranged family members and former friends, who reveal that Aileen was abandoned by her mother, raised by an abusive grandfather, and sexually abused by her brother and his friends. At age 11, she became pregnant and was eventually thrown out of the house and forced to live in the woods.
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| | It was as though Broomfield was expecting Governor Bush to burst through the door and announce: "Nick Broomfield was right! Stop the execution!" |
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Between the details of this appalling story, Broomfield weaves in bizarre on- and off-the-record interviews with Aileen. These conversations convince Broomfield that Aileen is mentally ill and that her insanity was triggered when she murdered her first victim in self-defense. Broomfield further believes that this initial murder led Aileen to murder six more men and that this information should have prevented the state of Florida (namely Governor Jeb Bush) from executing her.
Once Broomfield makes these points, he becomes obsessed with proving that Aileen initially acted in self defense, asking her about it over and over again — right up until the day before her execution. It was as though Broomfield was expecting Governor Bush to burst through the door and announce: "Nick Broomfield was right! Stop the execution!"
Of course, that doesn't happen. Aileen Wuornos's painful and atrocious life ends while Broomfield holds a press conference in the parking lot of the state pen and Governor Bush holds one in the state capital. Meanwhile, Hollywood producers cast Charlize Theron to portray Aileen in a screen adaptation of her story. Theron changes her appearance for the film, which opens to favorable reviews and "Oscar buzz."
Apparently, crime does pay.
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JANUARY 13, 2004
OFFOFFOFF.COM • THE GUIDE TO ALTERNATIVE NEW YORK
Reader comments on Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer:
wow from amelia lodrife, Nov 27, 2004
why from Josh, May 29, 2005
Aileen from Joey, Jul 21, 2005
My heroe from Maxi Fernandez, Nov 12, 2005
aileen from victor kruger, Oct 30, 2006
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