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Aileen: Life And Death Of A Serial Killer

Nick Broomfield, the man who gave us ‘Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer,’ now delivers a sequel to his 1992 documentary with ‘Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer.’ This thoroughly engrossing film follows the appeals process -- and ultimately -- the execution of Aileen Wuornos in 2002.

As I’ve stated in other documentary reviews, I can separate entertainment from journalism. And this film is like many others trying to push its slanted point of view, but that is not necessarily a negative in terms of its entertainment value. You will be riveted to the screen as you watch Aileen and others talk about her misdoings, the murders and her life. It’s a very entertaining and disturbing piece--depending on where you sit on the hot button issue of capital punishment, as well as many other issues this documentary brings to light.

Ultimately, the question is should we have sympathy for the devil? If half the things that were stated in this piece were true, you might be able to wrap your sane mind around the idea that there is only so much abuse one person can take before exploding in anger. Maybe. And even if you could reason that Aileen was made into a monster, not born one, does that forgive her for seven murders? It’s hard to say anyone would deserve a pass on that.

The story of sexual abuse-- starting at the age of nine, from the local pedophile, brother, and the local boys--along with physical abuse from her grandfather is heart wrenching. She also lived in the woods by her house for two years and got pregnant at thirteen. Not to mention the years of hooking and hitchhiking taking its toll. This kind of abuse has to leave deep-rooted emotional scarring, and Aileen was a heavily traumatized and mentally ill woman who, towards the end of the documentary, seemed to have real paranoid delusions. She is also alternately scary and sad. She did need to be incarcerated for life as she stated herself “If you don’t kill me, I’ll get out and kill again.” The debate on executing her is up to the individual person to decide. Watch and come up with your own opinions.

The biggest problem with the film is actual proof and credibility. I didn’t know when to believe or not believe what Aileen was saying at times. Was she a criminal mastermind able to pull on your sympathies? She readily admitted that she lied in open court, giving testimony that seemed pretty credible. I’m still up in the air on what to and not to believe -- from anyone involved. But let’s leave that aside, as she was a mentally ill person.

Nick himself comes off as very naïve, and his incessant asking of Aileen “was it self defense” was annoying. That was his agenda-- to portray her as insane, which was very easy to do because when she got angry she really did look like a monster. This obvious bias and lack of professionalism made me wonder about the validity of anything said in this documentary--especially when he was summoned to testify in regard to footage of his previous film. This testimony seemed to show a terrible edit and elicited a “dog ate my homework” response from him, just really bad. All of his credibility was lost at that point. At times, I also felt like everyone wanted their fifteen minutes of fame. This is ironic because Aileen stated several times that everyone involved wanted this to happen so they could make money off of books and movies. This, of course, happened with the making of the hit movie, ‘Monster.’ The trailer to that movie is included on the DVD.

When you get past Broomfield’s naivety, this documentary is very good and certainly entertaining. Take it with a grain a salt and decide for yourself how much you believe. But in the end this is far too complex for a simple black and white answer, since so many other people have gone through even more horrendous lives and haven’t committed murder. As heartrending as this movie is, it’s even sadder that this documentary can be seen just as exploitive as the people it’s criticizing.

Written by: Bobby Blades

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