Amy Rutledge: Response to Monster

After watching Patty Jenkins film, Monster, I was very much moved. I was especially surprised at how sympathetic I felt toward the main character in the movie, Aileen Wuornos. Considering the crimes she committed and the sentence she received, it does not seem typical the reaction I had. I will discuss the possible tactics used by the director to invoke such reactions within the viewer.

The best way to give a character dimension and make the audience feel connected to them would be to include personal and/or background information on such figures. Jenkins does this from the beginning of the film. We see a home- movie like flashback of Aileen when she was young. She narrates the images being shown to us; Aileen flashing a group of young boys and doing something sexual in a car with one. The boys give her some money, the one in the car seems to get what he wants and then kicks her out. All the while, Aileen talks about how as far back as she can remember, she wanted someone to tell her she was beautiful and worth something. Instead, her life seemed to have gotten off to a tragic start right from the beginning. She says that she had been sexually and physically abused by a close friend of the family and how when she told her father about it he berated her and kicked her out of the house.

So, from the beginning, Jenkins invokes a sort of guilt and sadness for this young girl. She shows us that Aileen had it rough from the start.
This is significant in how it sets the stage for the rest of the film. The choices Jenkins made were conscious ones; and their goal was to make the viewer sympathetic toward the main character. I believe Jenkins had the intention to tell Aileen's story strong and true. Without editing out such facts like those of the murders in the story, Jenkins is able to show a different side of Aileen. One that many people might not have been open to before.

As the movie continues, Aileen is considering suicide under a bridge, with her last dollar. The sadness sweeps over the viewer (or me anyway). She then meets Selby, a sort of silver lining that appears at the most crucial moment. At first she is unsure, but soon she realizes that this girl really does have good intentions. So Jenkins builds upon this relationship between Aileen and Selby, showing intimate moments between them and giving us the impression that Aileen really has a good heart, she is just damaged from her hardships on the streets. The sympathy deepens as their relationship builds.

Now the couple has dreams and ambitions about getting out of their lonely, current states and building a life together. I felt hopeful about Aileen's future; if I hadn't already known her fate, I would have been convinced that her and Selby really would live happily ever after, even as unconventional as it may have seemed. It is now that the incident occurs that changes everything. Aileen says she hates 'hooking' and is desperately trying to get away from that lifestyle and make something of herself. She needs money for her and Selby, so she decides that she can force herself through one more encounter since she has Selby as motivation. We witness a violent and deeply saddening incident between Aileen and her attacker. It is obvious that this man would kill and possibly torture her if he had the chance, and she fights back and wins, in her own defense. Even at this point in the film, we see nothing wrong with doing what she had to do to survive, even if it meant killing someone to ensure her own survival. Aileen is now faced with a tricky situation; go to the cops, explain everything and then probably get arrested herself for prostitution and/or murder, or get rid of everything and no one would be the wiser. It would just be her conscience she would have to deal with, and she has had much practice with that.

For the rest of the movie, Jenkins shows what occurred when Aileen realizes hooking is the only way she will ever be able to make any money. The pressure is rising for her to take care of Selby, and uphold her promise of their futures together. Jenkins shows us how emotionally broken hooking has made her, and she feels that she can still get what she needs without doing the dirty work that disgusts her. She will just take the men's money and car, kill the 'client', and dispose of the evidence. She will leave no leads, get rid of the men that disgust her so, and still make it home at night with money for Selby, and she'll be the only one who suffers; but that's OK because she has been doing it for so long anyway that it doesn't really matter anymore anyhow.

What happens next is history. She continues the killings which seem to be fairly factual, but Jenkins adds in things that seem to emphasize the underlying goodness of Aileen's soul. For example, Jenkins tries to show a more sensitive side of Aileen when she lets a man go after he tell her that what they're about to do will be his first time. It seems as though she pities him, and lets him go. Also, when she is picked up by a man who tells her that he doesn't want sex, he just wants to help her, she tries to get out of the car, to avoid taking this generous man's life. However, she does not, and he pleads with her for his life, telling her he has a family and offers her money, etc. if only she would let him go. The audience can see she is struggling with taking this man's life, but she has no choice but to do it, since he has seen her face. Throughout all the killings, you can see
that Aileen is having a hard time weighing all of this on her conscience.

In conclusion, Jenkins made a conscience decision to show Aileen in this way as opposed to what the media seems to make her out to be; a cold- blooded killer. It seems as though Jenkins' intention was to show a side of Aileen that not many people knew about. I don't think she was trying to justify her crimes in any way, nor dispute what is right or wrong. Her intention was probably to make the audience see Aileen more as a human and less as a criminal. She did an excellent job at this.

Works Cited:
Jenkins, Patty, dir. Monster. DEJ Productions, 2003.