Monster was a critical and commercial success and Charlize Theron won an Acadamy Award for her performance as serial killer Aileen Wuornos. Many reviewers commented on the film’s accuracy, and in promotional interviews Director Patty Jenkins and Theron did little to counter this opinion. Presented here is a discussion of the accuracy of the film and the methods used by the filmmakers. Readers may judge whether Monster strays too far from the truth or stays within the realm of artistic license.

Issue: Opening Montage

Monster uses a montage at the beginning of the film to sketch in the back story of Lee’s early life. Here, her childhood is correctly portrayed as terrible. The purpose of the montage seems to be twofold. The first is to simply provide information about her life that the audience is probably unaware of. The second goal is to build sympathy and empathy for the main character. Without it, you don’t have a successful film because the audience simply won’t care about her or the movie. As will be shown throughout this article, Monster works harder than most films to achieve this, and Jenkins correctly implies instances of child abuse and prostitution, both parts of Wuornos’ life. But she misses an opportunity by actually diminishing the bad things that happened to her. See my biography of Wuornos’ early life for more information.

Issue: Suicide Scene

The scene where Wuornos contemplates suicide makes a powerful opening and again creates sympathy but I can find no evidence it ever happened.

Issue: Selby

There was no “Selby”. The character was based on Tyria Moore, a lesbian with whom Wuornos had a relationship from 1986 to 1990. Moore was short and frumpy looking with missing teeth-definitely not a Christina Ricci type. Additionally, Wuornos and Moore actually lived together for about three years before the murders started. Other inconsistencies regarding her character will be examined later.

Issue: Donna Councils Selby

In one scene the character of “Donna” (played by Annie Corley) advises Selby to see if she has been robbed by Lee after their first night together. Ironically, this is the first of several instances where Corley’s character, who is unflatteringly portrayed as a bible-thumping redneck matriarch, gives Selby some very sound advice. The real Wuornos indeed had a nasty habit of robbing people who befriended her. One example (of many) occurred not long before her arrest when a woman agreed to let her stay in a vacant cabin. Wuornos was there about a week and left but not before helping herself to a gold charm, a sterling silver ring and bracelet, an ivory necklace, a passport, a birth certificate and other identification. Wuornos stole the identities of several people (including her own sister) and committed various crimes using their name.

Issue: Tom

“Tom” a kindly older gentleman (played by Bruce Dern) who befriends Lee didn’t exist in real life either. The primary reason for his inclusion seems to again be empathy; if Lee has no friends she becomes hard for the audience to relate to. Jenkins provides the following explanation for Tom in the DVD commentary: “In the reality of Aileen’s life, there were a number of men that she was friends with and some of those men were “Johns” or had been “Johns” and some of them were friends from the bar.” Tom is meant to be a composite of Lee’s male friends, but the real Wuornos had very few friends and tended to drive people away rather than attract them. This is one reason for her single-minded desire to hang on to Moore.

Selby is Lee’s First Lesbian Romance

This is simply false. Wuornos had at least one other live-in relationship with a female although it seems to have been a short-term one. She also had relations with another inmate after her arrest and once told a reporter that she had a girlfriend while incarcerated in the eighties. Wuornos’ sexual orientation can probably be best described as “conveniently bisexual”.

Website and Articles © W. Tracy Parnell All Rights Reserved. Copyright Strictly Enforced.