Monsters Don’t Cry
March 5, 2008
I watched the movie ‘Monster’ today. (Stars Charlize Theron in a very unattractive but brilliant role … so much less graceful than I’ve ever seen her, but playing it out perfectly). I would not say this movie completely glorified Aileen Wuornos, in fact, the complete opposite. However, that really humanizing moment when she spares the life of the speech impediment guy … that just bothered me. It was like “here you go, she’s not going to murder EVERYONE, just the real douche bags.” Then, later in the movie, she kills that nice guy who really intended to help her out. Why even bother to give her any credit? Why focus on that survivor at all. She had a lot of survivors. She was a prostitute since she was 13. So why focus on this one survivor in the middle of her serial rampage? What was the point? Was I supposed to sympathize with her? I understand that she was raped and beaten by the first guy she killed. That doesn’t justify her other acts. It makes me think of the movie ‘Boys Don’t Cry.’ Now, that movie was a lot different. It focused on the victim’s tragedy rather than that of the killer. However, Teena Brandon (aka Brandon Teena) was not a stand up citizen. I understand his (her) death was extremely tragic, but I also watched the documentary about him, and he was very deceitful. Brandon Teena was no martyr. Aileen Wuornos was no hero.
