© 2008 William Ahearn
If Patty Jenkin’s 2003 film “Monster” will be remembered for anything, it will be for the riveting portrayal of Aileen “Lee” Wuornos by Charlize Theron. Theron’s performance is worth, as they used to say, the price of admission and it helped bring this film numerous awards.
There is a darker subtext to the success of this film and it says a lot about the lingering puritanical and prurient interests of the audience. If you want a Hollywood movie made of your exploits and you kill men, then you had better be a woman. If you use a gun and you’re a prostitute, you can pretty much write your own ticket. Other serial killers had larger body counts and bigger headlines – John Wayne Gacy and Jeff Dahlmer come to mind – but they only killed boys and neither got the star treatment. (Gacy did get a TV movie starring Brian Dennehy.)
The only other Hollywood films that I can think of where the serial killer kills men is in “Cruising” starring Al Pacino and “Sea of Love” that also starred Pacino. “Cruising” had its own internal prurient interest problem and that’s covered in that section and “Sea of Love” still revolved around a female love interest. This also true of “Twisted” and only one of these films is based on a real serial killer.
Don’t get me wrong. If serial killer films are your cuppa, this film should be on your list. It’s a fascinating take on a damaged woman who is doomed by her actions and out of control.
As for factual accuracy, Aileen Wuornos is far from being “America’s first female serial killer” as early promotions for the film stated. There is also the question of the reliability of Wuornos’ story. The filmmakers take as gospel Wuornos’ assertion that the first killing was in response to an on-going rape that would make it self-defense at best and at worst, understandable. There is no evidence to support the claim and Wuornos has claimed – at one point – that all the killings were the result of rape. The supporting information comes from the fact that the first victim had a rape conviction and the filmmakers tend to use this information in an almost sexist way in that women killers have somehow earned our sympathy.
Drama made from true stories rarely let the facts get in the way of a good story. The film’s narrative also veers from the factual with the character Selby (played by Christina Ricci). The real person was named Tyria Moore and information about her can be found here.
The Aileen Wuornos story can be found here, here, and here.
“Monster” is one of the better Hollywood treatments of serial killers with a riveting performance by Charlize Theron.