Aileen: Vida e Morte de Uma Serial Killer

Nick Broomfield's second Aileen Wuernos doco (with Joan Churchill) does not walk the same hallways as the first, but it explores how the first, "The Selling of a Serial Killer", impacted the serial killer's mostly miserable life.

Wuernos's claim that the police department left her alone to kill so that they could ultimately sell the story rights to Hollywood is given a lot of play here. Broomfield doesn't take it up any further with the cops themselves (he did some of that in the original doc), but he does include fascinating footage of his own experience as a documentary "witness" to the dope smoking of "Dr. Legal", Aileen's first lawyer.

Aileen's final speech, almost directly to camera, is powerful and raw, much like the rest of this doco.

Some material feels whipped to death, but the revelations about the killer's childhood (at thirteen, after giving birth, she lived in the woods behind her house during a snowy winter) certainly help us to understand her better.

Worth seeing, but I feel that it would work better on the small screen.

Almost a decade after he made his original documentary around the trial of Aileen Wuornos, Nick Broomfield is surprised to open his door one morning and be served with a subpoena to attend what would turn out to be Wuornos final appeal. After being heavily criticised for editing his film to give false impressions, Broomfield's involvement is finished when Wuornos gives up on her appeal and volunteers for the death sentence. Broomfield continues his documentary, looking back at the original trial and getting several interviews with Aileen before her death.

I have not seen the film Monster but I may rent it out after seeing this film as it has raised my interest and given me more factual background to the story than I imagine a Hollywood film would give me. I'm not a massive fan of Broomfield and I was amused to see him being slightly hauled over the coals in court over his editing (the implication being that he made it look like Aileen's lawyer had smoked several spliffs before coming to advise her). However, despite opening himself to this criticism, Broomfield starts looking at the case and digs up some interesting fans, but the real value of the film is the interviews with Wuornos herself. While the film has plenty of little legal points about whether or not she was well advised and about how the media seemed to vilify her more than other similar male killers, it is almost impossible to agree with the penalty when you hear Wuornos talking.

Throughout the film her story changes and I was confused as to what the truth was as she seemed to be lying with every other word. We are then given background of abuse and tough living conditions and suggestions that she is the creation of her harsh and unpleasant background. Despite some interviews (particularly with her mother) that cast doubt on her life, the overwhelming impression of her youth is one of suffering, hardship and cruelty. On top of this, Wuornos herself is increasingly erratic and is clearly not in her right mind – reason enough for locking her away for life rather than killing her. She appears to be suffering from some form of split personality – one moment talking calmly to Nick, the next swearing non-stop at the courts to let her die. The idea that Bush's competency hearing lasting 15 minutes just makes matters worse.

Broomfield is clearly a liberal and is very against the death penalty (his comment 'it has been proven that the death penalty is no deterrent' is just lazy) and this does give the film a real slant in Aileen's favour. Despite this the film is still chilling – it is not totally clear what is true and what isn't but there are two things that are very clear. Firstly, there is no doubt that Aileen killed those men and that (in my opinion) self-defence is no defence for all of them. Secondly, Aileen is not in her right mind and should not have been killed but should have been jailed for life. It is chilling that so much is stacked in her favour and that Wuornos is only one of many people involved who want to flick the switch.

Overall, this is not an easy watch and even the Bush brothers would maybe have doubts over her death penalty. Her last interview descends into total paranoia and instability and is horrible to watch – I was left in no doubt that she deserved jail but in no way did this woman deserve to be killed. It is a well made film despite some bias from Nick and the end result is a chilling film that really made me worry about the systems in some states in the US that seem to treat the death penalty with such ease – like Nick says in reference to the physiological competency test, 'it makes you wonder what you have to do to fail'. After this film Broomfield was interviewed in The Times and said 'When I moved to the US in the 1970's, I had a real belief that it was the land of the free. For me this film marked the end of that belief' – it is to the film's credit that many viewers will be shaken in the same way.

to see films like this. When the media dehumanizes a person for profit, and thanks to Nick Broomfield, we see the other side. A 13 year old girl raped and impregnated by her grandfather, who slept in the freezing Michigan forest when her family kicked her out of their house.

Shame on Diane, Aileen's mother, who sits and states that Aileen loved living as a homeless person. The denial in this abusive family is rampant. I was actually angry and upset by this film.

Actions have consequences. Abuse starts at home, and this entire situation escalated to the point it did because an abused woman finally lost her grip on life, she had no help, no means of support, and the state of Florida was only too pleased to step in and garner media attention during an election year.

Capital punishment does not provide a deterrent (this is a scientific fact) but it does prove man's inhumanity. Thank you Mr. Broomfield for this upsetting documentary. 10/10.

Like the great Rolling Stones song in my title, this sobering film forces us to question what is evil, and what is humankind's role in creating it?

Like many of you, I'm assuming, I became interested in the story of Aileen Wurnos after seeing the powerful film "Monster" with Charlize Theron (who, by the way, did an EXCELLENT job in that film. After you see this, you'll agree she totally nailed the part of the real Aileen we see here).

From the opening lines, we realize that the director Nick Broomfield is biased in favour of Aileen, so if that's hard for you to swallow you might want to skip this documentary. But whether or not you think Aileen deserved to be executed, this is a great doc because it asks questions that we all should consider about the legal system, society's callousness and ultimately the death penalty.

From the Rolling Stones song: "I shouted out, who killed the Kennedys? When after all, It was you and me."

Similarly, this film asks the question, who killed the 7 victims? The answer, Nick Bloomfield implies, is "you and me" (human society). There is no Devil, and Aileen Wurnos isn't some supernatural spawn of Satan. She was a mentally damaged person who slipped through the cracks of society and in turn destroyed a lot of lives. Society, or rather the justice system, labeled her an abomination and exacted its revenge, washed its hands of her, and all the while made a pretty profit.

What's masterful about this documentary is, even though it is very sympathetic toward Aileen in her plight, it never attempts to excuse her for her crimes. In fact it shows some very chilling outbursts of hers where we realize exactly how explosive & mentally damaged she was. This is truly a documentary for people who can process the truth in conflicting packets, not for people who see things as black & white.

Other great films/documentaries that tackle controversial topics and force us to see the complexities beneath them include: "You Don't Know Jack" (2010) about Dr. Jack Kevorkian's suicide machine, "A Short Film About Killing" (1988) which is part of Kieslowsky's powerful "Decalogue" series, and an excellent doc called "The Bridge" (2006) that shows real footage of several troubled souls leaping to their deaths off the Golden Gate Bridge and analyzes what made them do it.

Nick Bloomfield is a filmmaker that goes out to find the truth or try at least. From Kurt and Courtney to Tupac and Biggie he always opts for the most controversial story he can get his hands on and he always rubs people up the wrong way without trying so hard like Michael Moore does in Bowling for Columbine.

Aileen was mad. She went through so much abuse in the years she was alive it probably became a natural thing to happen to her. She knew the wrong people, she had the wrong job and she never had the chance to get her say. She talked and talked a lot about what really happened and I think at the end of it all she didn't care about living as she had spent a good decade behind bars. The interviews that Nick has with Aileen are highly documented and explain a lot of her personality and who she really is but a lot of the time it was questionable about her insanity. Through the public eye she was a monster that deserved what was coming where other people looked at her in a different light and took pity because of her abusive up bringing. The movie Monster was a stunning portrayal of who Aileen really was and how down and out she was even before trying to get back up. She was whisked through so many relationships and whether or not they were abusive relationships they always left her scared and feeling unwanted. I got the impression that sometimes when she was prostituting herself she was looking for one man or woman to come along and take her away from all the hurt and pain she must have been feeling. For Jeb Bush to let the execution of Aileen go ahead was an absolute outage as far as justice goes because though she may have wanted it from time to time legally she shouldn't have been executed. She had so many past happening going through her head she didn't know the right from wrong and because of constant abuse of male figures in her life since she was a little girl you couldn't really say that she wasn't mixed up and was fully sane to be executed.

Nick bonds with Aileen a lot through the documentary and a lot of the time Aileen does go back and what she says which just puts you in place where you don't know what to believe but this is such a fascinating story and is a subject that isn't brought up enough in this day and age because things that happened to Aileen are happening right now to one woman or even a man in nearly every country. Physical Abuse is a subject that people don't like to discuss in general because of the horror that follows it but if it was an issue like it should have been with Aileen then I think many people could be saved and to understand there story you have to listen to what they have to say which is what nobody did when coming to Aileen. Bloomfield again creates something which gives you food for thought and as much as he wants to find the truth again he doesn't, only a number of conspiracy theories which I always find appealing because it leaves you thinking more about the truth.