Balades fatales

Released in 1992, eleven years before ´Monster', and about one year after Aileen was arrested, this TV production offers an authenticity that 'Monster' lacked because it was filmed during the era when the events happened. The opening scene with Aileen and Tyria drunk driving in one of the victim´s stolen cars, laughing and enjoying themselves just before the crash, is realistic. The scene with Aileen dancing in (presumably) the Last Resort bar to the music on the jukebox really channeled her spirit. This is exactly the way I would have imagined Aileen in a bar: drinking beer and dancing to her favorite tunes. The setting of this film, unfortunately looks more like Southern California rather than Florida. On the other hand, Jean Smart did a great job portraying Aileen, and was completely natural without tons of makeup. Park Overall as Tyria was also good and didn't act as naive and clueless as her portrayal in 'Monster'. I also liked that they used Tyria's real name as well as the investigator Bruce Munster (how much was he paid for this?) And wow, it sure took the police a long time to connect all these murders. Watch 'Monster' and then watch this for a different perspective.

Made the same year as the Nick Broomfield documentary The Selling of a Serial Killer, though presumably after it, since there is talk of the movie rights in the doco, this TVM is the tale of a woman who graduated from being a career criminal and prostitute to the first American female serial killer, accused of killing 7 men in Florida.

The strength of this treatment is in the performance of Jean Smart as Aileen, also known as Lee, who is intense and makes odd choices to reveal Aileen's state of mind. She maniacally cleans a crashed car she and hotel maid Tyria Moore (Park Overall) are in, to remove fingerprints and blood as she does in the killings, she is jealous "mean" to Tyria's visiting sister Amy (TC Warner), screams after Tyria cannot be found in their hotel room, fearful when seeing news of the police hunt for her on television, makes one of those cliched waking-from-a-nightmare scenes work for once, and even survives a scene where she dances alone wildly in a pub and is made to see her girlhood reflection in the mirror.

Aileen's lesbianism is white-washed here as her being an "older sister" and "the best friend I ever had" to Tyria, and although we see how alcohol alters Aileen's behaviour, we get the standard explaination that her hatred of men, disguised behind provocatism, stems from child abuse. However Smart also makes Aileen's feeling "lost" vulnerable, with a stunned response to men that are nice to her. In the killings we are shown and the aural flashbacks, Aileen's victims are insulting to her (they all call her "baby" and "whore"), and her pathologically angry response explains the title, a police term describing the excess of her gun shooting. Aileen's future is also made more bleak when she "drifts" away from Tyria, and the second half of the narrative focuses on the police efforts to arrest her, since it is her believed her drifting will inevitably result in another killing.

The teleplay by Fred Mills has Aileen confess to being "crazy", someone who "doesn't know how to be, sometimes", who justifies her actions by saying that the men who "came to her like flies on crap" "messed" with her. Mills presenting Aileen as a humanitarian, giving money to a homeless person, is inexplicable, though a parallel is made where she hands over the proceeds of the post murder robberies to Tyria, and the duplicity of Tyria as a witness against Aileen has less of an impact than it does in the Broomfield.

But while Mills stoops to Tyria explaining Aileen as a hooker as "It's just what she does, not who she is" and later Tyria "I knew it would come to this", he also provides some laugh lines. A policeman tells us that when women kill, they kill people they know, not strangers - "They murder their husbands. They murder their lovers. They murder their husband's lovers", and a pickup tells Aileen "I had an easier time in ‘Nam than I do with most women". Mills also uses flashbacks of Aileen's past which director Peter Levin improves with tinted lighting and bold use of colour, a Santa with a southern accent, the song Crazy on a jukebox, and the police holding a meeting on a beach.

Levin cuts from the discovery of one dead body to a child screaming at a party, and from a police image of Aileen's thumbprint to Aileen using her thumb to make a jukebox choice, uses It's a Wonderful Life on TV, dirt on the camera and the car coming at us in the opening crash, but also an unnecessary reflected prison wire pattern on Smart's face for a telephone conversation.

Understandably, this low-budget TV movie is compared unfavorably to the acclaimed film "Monster", which, in a sense, romanticizes crime and hence appears more attractive to the public.

On the other hand, "Overkill" is closer to the true story. The one thing that is missing, though, is the part concerning the trial of Aileen Wuornos. There were some really strong moments there, and the courtroom scenes would have added to the authenticity of the film.

In addition, there is some very good acting in this film, not too inferior to the one that won a cinematic Oscar!

In my opinion, this TV movie is unjustly underrated...

I accept the view of other contributors that this TV version of the story presents a sanitised picture with some aspects of the Wuornos story being reduced or ignored. In particular the motivation behind the murders is only peripherally explored and the true relationship between Wuornos and Tyria is really ignored being presented as room-sharing "sisters" almost.

However I do disagree with one commentator who says Jean Smart is awful in the title role. This is an actress I hadn't come across before but I can see from her IMDb entry that she has appeared in many films. I shall certainly keep an eye out for her in the future. I found her performance here compelling. She puts across the serial killer characteristics of someone who can function some of the time in their normal environment in a relatively "normal" manner but who is subsumed by an overwhelming compulsion in other circumstances. The scenes before her capture where she is dancing frenetically and aimlessly in a club and then is slouched in a yard full of bike-riders is a case in point.

I think an excellent performance from Smart well supported by Park Overall as Tyria though the police roles are perfunctory and basic at times.

Although the Charlize Theron version of this story is much more well known and garnered her worthy accolades this TV film is well worth watching if you get the chance.

Although there was nothing wrong with this movie nor acting, i found it a bit tiresome and not so cohesive solid portrayal of aileen. A & E biography is probably a better choice. And for sure 'Monster' version is more watchable. I don't believe in death penalty so as in this case a professional treatment instead of death would have been a better choice but sadly that was never offered and sadly she never searched for any professional help either.