Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer | |
---|---|
Directed by | Nick Broomfield Joan Churchill |
Written by | Nick Broomfield |
Produced by | Jo Human |
Starring | Nick Broomfield Aileen Wuornos Jeb Bush Louis Mason |
Cinematography | Joan Churchill |
Edited by | Claire Ferguson |
Music by | Robert Lane |
Release date |
|
Running time | 89 minutes |
Language | English |
Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer is a 2003 feature-length documentary film about Aileen Wuornos, made by Nick Broomfield as a follow-up to his 1992 film Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer . [1] The film focuses on Wuornos' declining mental state and the questionable judgment to execute her despite her being of unsound mind. [2] [3]
The film focuses on an evidentiary hearing held in February 2003 in Marion County, Florida, which was the site of some but not all of Wuornos' murders for which she was convicted and sentenced to death. It shows the work of the Office of Capital Collateral Regional counsel, led by attorney Joseph T. Hobson, who is both interviewed and featured in the film and who seeks to vacate Wuornos' death sentences. It shows Judge Victor Musleh presiding over these proceedings and assistant state attorney, now judge, James McCune, who defended the death sentences for the State of Florida. Hobson is shown vigorously cross-examining Wuornos' trial counsel, Steven Glazer, aka "Dr. Legal". Glazer was the unflattering subject of a prior Broomfield documentary on Aileen Wuornos, Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer . It was Hobson's line of attack that the efficacy of his client's (Wuornos') trial strategy was compromised by Glazer's pecuniary and self-promotional aims.
The film climaxes in a final interview with Wuornos one day before her execution. In the interview, she states that she was tortured while in prison and claims that the prison used "sonic pressure" to control or alter her mental state. In a fit of rage, Wuornos rails against a society that she says "railroaded my ass" before abruptly ending the interview. Broomfield comments that he finds it hard to understand how the same person in front of him was deemed "of sound mind" the day before by Florida governor Jeb Bush's psychiatric examiners.
The film concludes with footage of a prison spokesman reading Wuornos' final statement at a press conference after her execution: "I'm sailing with the Rock, and I'll be back. Like Independence Day with Jesus, June 6, like the movie, big mothership and all. I'll be back, I'll be back."
The film received a limited theatrical release in North America [4] [5] several weeks after the Aileen Wuornos biopic Monster opened to generally positive reviews. Released on January 9, 2004, on three screens, Aileen grossed $16,158 (an average of $5,386 per screen) in its opening weekend. Playing in six theaters at its widest point, its total North American box office gross stands at just $97,362. [4] [5]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 85% of 61 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.3/10.The website's consensus reads: "This chilling, unsettling documentary provides an eye-opening look at both Wuornos and the American justice system." [6] The documentary holds a 7.1/10 weighted rating based on 6.9k reviews on IMDb. [7]
Tigerlily is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant, released on June 20, 1995, following her departure from the alternative rock band 10,000 Maniacs.
Aileen Carol Wuornos was an American serial killer. In 1989–1990, while engaging in street prostitution along highways in Florida, she shot dead and robbed seven of her male clients. Wuornos claimed that her clients had either raped or attempted to rape her, and that the homicides of the men were committed in self-defense. Wuornos was sentenced to death for six of the murders. She was executed on October 9, 2002, by lethal injection after spending more than 10 years on Florida's death row.
Fast, Cheap & Out of Control is a 1997 documentary film by filmmaker Errol Morris.
San Quentin Rehabilitation Center (SQ), formerly known as San Quentin State Prison, is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men, located north of San Francisco in the unincorporated place of San Quentin in Marin County.
Monster is a 2003 American biographical crime drama film written and directed by Patty Jenkins in her feature directorial debut. The film follows serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a street prostitute who murdered seven of her male clients between 1989 and 1990 and was executed in Florida in 2002. It stars Charlize Theron as Wuornos and Christina Ricci as her semi-fictionalized lover, Selby Wall.
John Campbell McTiernan Jr. is an American former filmmaker and a convicted felon. He is best known for his action films, including Predator (1987), Die Hard (1988), and The Hunt for Red October (1990). The last three of his 11 feature films, ending with Basic (2003), were critical and box office failures.
Henry Lee Lucas, also known as the Confession Killer, was an American convicted murderer. Lucas was convicted of murdering his mother in 1960 and two others in 1983. He rose to infamy as a claimed serial killer while incarcerated for these crimes when he falsely confessed to approximately 600 other murders to Texas Rangers and other law enforcement officials. Many unsolved cases were closed based on the confessions and the murders officially attributed to Lucas. He was convicted of murdering eleven people and condemned to death for a single case with a then-unidentified victim, later identified as Debra Jackson.
Nicholas Broomfield is an English documentary film director. His self-reflective style has been regarded as influential to many later filmmakers. In the early 21st century, he began to use non-actors in scripted works, which he calls "Direct Cinema". His output ranges from studies of entertainers to political works such as examinations of South Africa before and after the end of apartheid and the rise of the black-majority government of Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress party.
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is a 1986 American independent psychological horror film directed and co-written by John McNaughton about the random crime spree of a serial killer who seemingly operates with impunity. It stars Michael Rooker in his film debut as the nomadic killer Henry, Tom Towles as Otis, a prison buddy with whom Henry is living, and Tracy Arnold as Becky, Otis's sister. The characters of Henry and Otis are loosely based on convicted real life serial killers Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole.
Florida State Prison (FSP), otherwise known as Raiford Prison, is a correctional institution located in unincorporated Bradford County, Florida, with a Raiford postal address. It was formerly known as the "Florida State Prison-East Unit" as it was originally part of Florida State Prison near Raiford. The facility, a part of the Florida Department of Corrections, is located on State Road 16 right across the border from Union County. The institution opened in 1961, even though construction was not completed until 1968. With a maximum population of over 1,400 inmates, FSP is one of the largest prisons in the state. FSP houses Florida's one of two male death row cell blocks and the State of Florida execution chamber. Union Correctional Institution also houses male death row inmates while Lowell Annex houses female death row inmates.
John McNaughton is an American film and television director, originally from Chicago, Illinois, whose works encompass the horror, thriller, drama and comedy film genres. His films include Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986), The Borrower (1991), Mad Dog and Glory (1993), Normal Life (1996), Wild Things (1998), Speaking of Sex (2001) and The Harvest (2013).
Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer is a 1992 documentary film about Aileen Wuornos, made by Nick Broomfield. It documents Broomfield's attempts to interview Wuornos, which involves a long process of mediation through her adoptive mother, Arlene Pralle, and her lawyer, Steve Glazer.
Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam (1996) is a feature-length documentary film by Nick Broomfield. It concerns Heidi Fleiss, then a madam involved in a prostitution ring. In the film, Broomfield attempts to discover if Fleiss truly is a "horrible person" and what made her that way.
Joseph Berlinger is an American documentary filmmaker and producer. Particularly focused on true crime documentaries, Berlinger's films and docu-series draw attention to social justice issues in the US and abroad in such films as Brother's Keeper, Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, Crude, Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger and Intent To Destroy: Death, Denial and Depiction.
Kurt & Courtney is a 1998 British documentary film by Nick Broomfield investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of Kurt Cobain, and allegations of Courtney Love's involvement in it.
Into the Abyss is a 2011 documentary film written and directed by Werner Herzog. It is about capital punishment, and focuses on a triple homicide that occurred in Montgomery County, Texas, in 2001. In the film, Herzog interviews the two young men convicted of the crime, Michael Perry and Jason Burkett, as well as family members and acquaintances of the victims and criminals, and individuals who have taken part in executions in Texas. The primary focus of the film is not the details of the case or the question of Michael and Jason's guilt or innocence, and, although Herzog's voice can be heard as he conducts the interviews, there is a minimal amount of narration, and he never appears onscreen, unlike in many of his films.
Charlize Theron is a South African-American actress who made her film debut in an uncredited role as a follower of a cult in the 1995 horror film Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest. Theron followed this with appearances as a hitman's girlfriend in 2 Days in the Valley, a waitress in the romantic comedy Trial and Error (1997), and a woman plagued with demonic visions in the mystery thriller The Devil's Advocate (1997) with Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino. She appeared in the science fiction thriller The Astronaut's Wife with Johnny Depp, and Lasse Hallström's The Cider House Rules. For her portrayal of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the crime drama Monster (2003), Theron received the Academy Award for Best Actress, the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role. The following year, she played Swedish entertainer Britt Ekland in the biographical film The Life and Death of Peter Sellers.
Milena Quaglini was an Italian woman, who in the late 1990s murdered three men who sexually assaulted her.
Jaroslava Fabiánová is a Czech serial killer who committed a total of four financially motivated murders between 1981 and 2003. She is currently serving a life imprisonment sentence for four murders and other crimes. Their similar backgrounds, psychopathology and modus operandi led the media to refer to Fabiánová as "the Czech Aileen Wuornos."
Aileen Wuornos: American Boogeywoman is a 2021 American horror thriller film written and directed by Daniel Farrands. It shows a fictionalized version of the early life of serial killer Aileen Wuornos, with some real facts from her biography. It stars Peyton List as Wuornos, supporting cast includes Tobin Bell, Lydia Hearst, Nick Vallelonga, Swen Temmel, and Andrew Biernat.