Has anyone seen Monster?

[sleeping queen]

We started watching this movie tonight and it got to the scene where she is raped and it was so graphic that we turned the movie off and didn't watch the rest. YIKES I had heard it was a good movie , but I don't think so from what I seen.

[joesmom]

I loved the movie... no, wait, I am thinking of Monster's Ball, with Halle Berry... Monster- is that Charlize Theron? I want to see it... Hope others weigh in with their POV.

[sarahsmommy]

Didn't like it

Saw it. It was sooo hard to watch. The violence was terrible. It made me so depressed because she was so pitiful!! She was so desparate for love.

[Evergreen]

I haven't seen it but I really want to as well. Theron is suposed to deliver an amazing performance. It is also a true story of a very troubled young woman who prostitiutes herself and murders her johns, so, yes, it is going to probably offend some people, and I am assuming parts of it are quite graphic.

I wasn't aware that she was raped. It is so sad how the cumulation of events in one's lifetime can add up to destroy a person, and ultimately every one around them.

[alliwenk]

I really loved Monster. I thought it was a very gripping film. And Wournos' sad desperation was touching...I REALLY like that the director refuses to justify her crimes but she also doesn't objectify Wournos as simply THE KILLER.

The rape scene WAS rough. I think that was the point. I have seen movies with worse rape scenes where the violence is so apalling as to be gratuitous ("Irreversible" comes to mind; "Monster" is a cakewalk next to that film). But it was a well filmed scene and without it the movie would not have been nearly as powerful...that scene made me rise out of my seat and want to shout out Wournos' own fury; it made me "happy" that she killed him. Considering that I am a pretty gentle person, the ability of a movie to move me that much impresses me.

Allison

[CerridwenLorelei]

i haven't seen it but I want to

I have read several books on her
before I had to stop serial killers were one of my interests/focus in my CJ studies...

[Glittergal]

You know, I couldn't even get through it. It was far to graphic and violent for me, and I'm usually pretty okay with most things.

[Charles Baudelaire]

Well, for me, it wasn't nearly as graphic as I had feared it would be -- I mean, it's about a serial killer. It's not going to be sunshine and flowers.

That said, the violence is suggested, but not astonishingly graphic -- you're aware of exactly what is happening, but you thankfully don't get it in overly descriptive detail.

What I thought was intriguing about the movie was the contradiction between the expectation set up by the title and the actual portrait of Worounos (sp?) that emerged. Anything but monstrous, she struck me as being horribly in need of love and desperate to love someone, anyone.

However, she was a broken person with limited connection to reality -- I cringed in that painful scene where she interviews for the lawyer. When you're reduced to the elemental functioning in life, like raw survival on a day-to-day basis, you have little to fall back on within yourself if there's nothing there or if what is there has been fractured and broken by a poor childhood. There's no time or room for empathy.

Paradoxically, the most human and least monstrous part of her -- the fact that she so desperately needed love -- was curiously enough the thing that set her along the path to being a serial killer. It wasn't a simplistic film in any respect. Good job throughout, I think.

[Greaseball]

I liked that movie. I really empathized with the character. It made me sad. She is someone who truly did not have a chance at a normal life. She didn't even know how to act in public when she was trying to get a real job, and at 30+ years old, who is going to teach her?

I don't really consider her a "serial killer." I've done some more reading about her, and one point was very interesting: during the time she was killing people, she continued to work as a prostitute, and the majority of her johns she did not kill. So there must have been something about the ones she did kill - a real or perceived threat.

She only killed 6 or 7 of them. In court, they claimed it was impossible for all of them to have been a danger to her. But is it really? If you are a full-time prostitute, you probably will encounter several people who are a danger to you. In the movie, it looked like maybe only 1 or 2 of them were really dangerous (that first guy, IRL, had been convicted of violent sex offenses) so the others were probably only perceived as threats.

I think that's why more programs to help prostitutes leave the lifestyle are needed.

[alliwenk]

Originally Posted by Charles Baudelaire

What I thought was intriguing about the movie was the contradiction between the expectation set up by the title and the actual portrait of Worounos (sp?) that emerged. Anything but monstrous, she struck me as being horribly in need of love and desperate to love someone, anyone.

Excellent point CB - This is one of the best things about the movie imo. So many people are willing to draw a thick black line between manistream/non-criminal society and those "monsters" that kill. I love that the title takes away all of her humanity but that the action of the film gives it back. I've never understood simply classifying murderers like this...I think it just makes it easier to deny that rage, murder, revenge etc. are HUMAN qualities only; qualities that any one of us are capable of.

Allison

[DaryLLL]

Just want to for Christina Ricci's character. No one ever talks about her! I had such empathy for her, poor little lesbian raised by fundies, full of guilt and self hatred. So lost she would cling to a weird one like Wuornos out of desparation.

Why are movies about gay people almost always sad?

(Can I even mention there are gay people in the world here any more?)

the only happy one I have seen is Julie Newmar.

[alliwenk]

Originally Posted by Greaseball

In the movie, it looked like maybe only 1 or 2 of them were really dangerous (that first guy, IRL, had been convicted of violent sex offenses) so the others were probably only perceived as threats.

In the film it is very clear that her murders become less and less justifiable. The first john rapes her horribly and she kills him (I don't think anyone who watches that scene does not feel that her killing him is at least somewhat justified.) The second guy makes a few nasty requests...the next guy is only slightly less offensive, etc. By the time she gets to the last john, he is merely a pathetic man looking for a prostitute and not at all frightening....

Allison

And you had a GREAT point about the need for programs to help get prostitutes off the street .

[Greaseball]

Some larger cities have these programs. I don't know much about them, though.

Ricci's character seemed a bit mentally ill to me. She just runs away with this woman and lets her use prostitution to support both of them? Most people would be concerned that their partner was a prostitute, instead of seeing it as just a way to get by.

[JesseMomme]

I clicked on the thread thinking "Monster's Ball? That was a great movie!" :doh I haven't seen "Monster" yet. Now I wonder if I want to?

I'm still trying to shake the depression of Cold Mountain out of my brain after all...

[Charles Baudelaire]

OT, but these are some happy movies about gay people:

1. "La Cage Aux Folles" (Get the subtitles!!!)
2. "The Birdcage" (American version of above)
3. "The Wedding Banquet" (HEARTWARMING!!)

Originally Posted by DaryLLL

Just want to for Christina Ricci's character. No one ever talks about her! I had such empathy for her, poor little lesbian raised by fundies, full of guilt and self hatred. So lost she would cling to a weird one like Wuornos out of desparation.

Why are movies about gay people almost always sad?

(Can I even mention there are gay people in the world here any more?)

the only happy one I have seen is Julie Newmar.

[Viola]

Originally Posted by Charles Baudelaire

OT, but these are some happy movies about gay people:

3. "The Wedding Banquet" (HEARTWARMING!!)

Oh, I love that one. The Sum of Us was pretty good as well.

[Plady]

Monster was one of those movies that was really well acted but which it still hard to "like" KWIM?
I thought Theron did a GREAT job portraying someone so sad, so desperate for love, so abandoned by society. I never liked her much before but boy am I a fan now! That said the story was just so awful the worst part was that it was true.

[Mamax3]

I thought it was a good movie. I didn't like some of the violence but I have seen much worse without any warning in other movies. You can kind of guess from the title and the cover that there will be violence.

I also agree with the point brought up by CB. It was a very thought provoking movie and in some ways I felt sorry for Wournos...because she really never stood a chance in society.

As for the girlfriend, I kept yelling at the screen "get a job"!! She was allowing Wournos to support them both through prostitution and kept expecting the money to come in then turned Wournos in....what a loser.

I thought Charlize Theron was excellent!

[Greaseball]

I just rented the DVD called "Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer" or something like that. It has real interviews with Aileen, court videos, and interviews with a childhood friend of hers, as well as going into the tragic story of her life. It's pretty good so far.

It's amazing how much Theron looked like the real Aileen!

[JesseMomme]

Christina Ricci's in it? Ok now I have to see this movie! She's one of my all time favorite actresses, and I agree you never hear anything about her which is a shame.

It's based on a true story too? Oh man, this will be like watching Boys Don't Cry where the whole time you think "oh god these awful things really happened..."