POSSIBLE SPOILERS
This film looks at the final days of serial killer Aileen Wuornos, who murdered seven men in the space of one year, and whose life story was filmed recently as "Monster". This is the second documentary that film-maker Nick Broomfield has made about Wuornos. In fact this film opens with Broomfield being called in to testify at a trial of Wournos, because of his previous documentary "Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer".
The film deals with Wuornos' horrific background and also with the various hearings and appeals to try to save her life. Broomfield uses extensive interviews with Wuornos where she makes it clear that, after 12 years on death row, she wants to die, and in fact, changes her story and fires her lawyer in order to stop any plans to halt her execution.
The main thrust of Broomfield's argument in the film is that Wuornos was insane and should never have been executed. You may find it hard to argue with him, when you hear Wuornos' paranoid rants and witness her drastic mood swings (calm and pleasant one minute and the next bug-eyed raving).
However you may feel about Wuornos' crimes and her claims of self-defence, it is hard not to feel sorry for her. She was someone who was abused and betrayed by almost everyone. Nick Broomfield obviously liked Wuornos and had some sympathy for her, and he was obviously one of the very few people that she liked and trusted.
"Life and Death of a Serial Killer" is the last testament to a tortured life.
This film looks at the final days of serial killer Aileen Wuornos, who murdered seven men in the space of one year, and whose life story was filmed recently as "Monster". This is the second documentary that film-maker Nick Broomfield has made about Wuornos. In fact this film opens with Broomfield being called in to testify at a trial of Wournos, because of his previous documentary "Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer".
The film deals with Wuornos' horrific background and also with the various hearings and appeals to try to save her life. Broomfield uses extensive interviews with Wuornos where she makes it clear that, after 12 years on death row, she wants to die, and in fact, changes her story and fires her lawyer in order to stop any plans to halt her execution.
The main thrust of Broomfield's argument in the film is that Wuornos was insane and should never have been executed. You may find it hard to argue with him, when you hear Wuornos' paranoid rants and witness her drastic mood swings (calm and pleasant one minute and the next bug-eyed raving).
However you may feel about Wuornos' crimes and her claims of self-defence, it is hard not to feel sorry for her. She was someone who was abused and betrayed by almost everyone. Nick Broomfield obviously liked Wuornos and had some sympathy for her, and he was obviously one of the very few people that she liked and trusted.
"Life and Death of a Serial Killer" is the last testament to a tortured life.