marcmillar23 If you like documentaries on serial killers or murderers, this is obviously one for your collection. Nick Broomfield has you captivated from the outset. My only gripe is that I felt that Broomfield laid a bit too much pressure on Wournos. He kept repeating the same question over and over to her and you can sense it is tiring her out, even aggravating her. The repeated questioning also has you believe that Broomfield is doing this for his own agenda and not for getting the points that Wournos wanted to get across to the viewers.I personally felt she was remorseful for her actions. She was doing her time and she knew where her fate lied. She didn't want to be judged anymore, she was exhausted and just wanted everything to be finalised.A shocking start to her life, you can empathise with Wournos. There's no getting away from the fact that what she did, deserved a life sentence, but death? In my opinion, definitely not. As Broomfield points out, she was clearly insane and even more so towards the end of her sentence, as I guess almost anyone would be in that situation. A tragic tale of a human life that was definitely drawn the proverbial 'short straw'.Don't forget the tissues, for the ending.

Herag Halli She was a "Frank Breech Birth" according to her mother, Diane, who claimed that Aileen, might have been brain damaged during birth even though it was her impression that she was mentally competent. The last few scenes are chilling and makes one think twice about competency hearing and death penalty. She was seen by three shrinks for 20 minutes each few days before the execution and declared competent. Broomfield's introspective statement one of the best one liners-"How badly you have to perform to be declared incompetent?" She disowned and despised her mother. The mother's action probably triggered her rage and the abuse by men made her deranged and impulsive. She did not accept the mothers plea thru the interviewer, to forgive her, even though she had no contact with her mother for over 25 years. She claimed that the family was decent but were too strict, She was thrown out of the house after at 13, to live in snow in a truck with the four wheels resting on cinder blocks. Her last wishes for her to be cremated and ashes to be scattered over estate in Michigan, and the last song to be played at the wake "Carnival" by Natalie Merchant, is sad and poignant. The best piece of the film, is when Nick Broomfield gives an interview to the media, on day of the execution and the camera is focused on the media for their reaction and one female news reporter(a stunningly attractive woman) makes incredible professional facial gestures, to hide her tears from the camera. If she (Wuornos) was a "Monster" that she was made up to be, why shed tears? This only confirms that her execution was more political than based on principle. She certainly was a tortured soul on earth.

Michael O'Keefe The honest truth can get very ugly. British filmmaker(Nick Broomfield) directs this documentary that deals with appeals court appearances of infamous serial killer Aileen Wuornos, who went on a murder spree in 1992. Growing up in Michigan Aileen was selling sex for cigarettes at the age of 9. Dealing with abuse most of her life, Wournos had very little respect for men...but knew she needed to use them for her survival. In the state of Florida Aileen became a highway prostitute as a teen and was convicted of killing six semi-truck drivers claiming she was defending herself from rape. This film shows a very troubled woman that runs in and out of paranoid schizophrenia. Actual footage from court appearances plus personal interviews with the killer; as well as family members of the "johns" she murdered makes for an undaunted, matter-of-fact, in your face documentary. Wournos makes no bones about what she did; but she is adamant about the criminal justice system failing her. Her story was loosely told in the acclaimed 2003 movie MONSTER starring Charlize Theron in the lead role.

paul2001sw-1 Aileen Wuornos grew up in a financially, and emotionally, deprived family. She later killed seven men in cold blood (she may have been defending herself from attack in some cases, but that remains unclear). She showed little remorse thereafter. She was intelligent, articulate, and although towards the end of her spell on death row appeared wildly deluded, was arguably not insane: her view of the world may have been wrong, but it did make sense. The story of her final year, told in this film by Nick Broomfield (who had made another film earlier during her journey through the U.S. legal system), makes highly disturbing viewing. Wuornos does not come across as a "monster" (the name of a subsequent fictionalised account of her case) but as very human; and yet she seems incapable of comprehending the significance of death, even her own at the hands of the state. The system treated her badly, and I personally oppose the death penalty in all cases; and yet it's hard to imagine how anyone in her position could generate less sympathy than Wuornos does. In some respects, 'Aileen' is a ghoulish film, peeping through the window of a house of pure horror.Broomfield's earlier film centred on the grotesque way almost everyone involved in the case tried to sell their story to the media. But Broomfield himself is part of that media, and notwithstanding the fact that he gained Wuornos' trust, this film seems almost out of it's depth. Broomfield's style, first practised on South African white supremacist Eugene Terreblanche, is based on turning up, turning on the camera and letting people damn themselves. In his film of Terreblanche, the tactic worked, brilliantly deflating alarmist rumours of an Afrikaaner coup in it's portrait of it's pathetic subject. But in 'Aileen', it's unclear who Broomfield is trying to damn, or whether anyone is well served by the putting of the story on camera. In one of the most chilling moments, we see the awful television coverage of Wuornos' execution (sample sound-bite: "Date with Death"), but at one remove, through Broomfield's own lens. Does this make the film an expose, or merely an exploitation of (and contributor to) our collective and irrational fear of that tiny proportion of humanity who kill for apparently no reason? It might do us more value to look at the (socially licensed) serial killers on both sides of the war in Iraq. Instead we play "watch the monster". At least 'Aileen' makes you think. But don't expect to understand.