Am I the only person who thinks the film Monster made my country look bad?

[anti-NAFTA]

The film makes us look like the sh*ttiest nation. I saw it last night and I am still disturbed by it. This film stays with you. Charlize Theron's performance was amazing. She did the whole white-trash thing perfectly, and the makeup made her look like utter garbage.

What has been bugging me is this notion that people like the characters included in the movie really exist. I can't put into words how disgusted I am. Are we really this rotten? The "victims" themselves were truly SCUM.

This film is very vomit-inducing at times. It makes you wonder why anyone would PAY to be serviced by Aileen Wuornos (Charlize Theron's character). Why??? Every single character in this film is despicable.

I have never been with a prostitute and I really question the judgment of men who have unprotected sex with "hookers" as was seen in this film. I wonder how many STDs Wuornos has had, but I can't get any information on that.

So this movie was sick and brutal. By far the most disturbing film I've ever seen. It claims to show us the brutal ugly truth of our nation.

I recommend it to all those with a strong heart and a strong stomach.

[brainwashed_youth]

1. our nation?

So, ur saying this movie makes America look bad? Dude, I saw the movie, and that thought never crossed my mind. Do you just look for negativity about America everywhere you go?

[anti-NAFTA]

3. No

It's just so vile. I can't put it into words. It's brutal. What percent of America is into this sort of shit?

[Archae]

2. It's also mostly fiction.

Friend of mine in Florida who actually saw the real Ournos once, saw the movie, and said most of it was embellished, to try to make her look more sympathetic.

[anti-NAFTA]

4. so she was WORSE in real life?!

Ugh! How did he see her? Did she service him?

[Archae]

8. At the time

My friend lived in that general area, and liked hanging out at biker bars.

He said once, he saw her, and the look on her face just screamed out, "Mean bitch here."

She had an extensive criminal record before her arrest for murder, not just for prostitution, but for assault, battery, and assault with a deadly weapon.

If you want, PM me, and I'll put you in touch with Wayne.

[anti-NAFTA]

10. the movie gave her a shitty look too

I don't think the film humanized her. I was sort of happy when she was electrocuted in the film.

[lcordero]

5. This is what happens after almost 24 years of cutting away at

the safety net. A very good percentage of people will always be in perpetual survival mode. We are getting to be a society where more and more will starve because they have a sense of honor or some form of morals.

[anti-NAFTA]

6. That's sad

Fucking abhorrent.

[lcordero]

19. this is what decades of capitulation has gotten us

There is no room for compromise when the welfare of people is on the line and there will never be.

[NashVegas]

7. You're Surprised That Scum Actually Exists?

We, as liberals, would like to think that all poor people are innocent victims of the class wars.

The truth is somewhat murkier.

You treat someone like a dog most of their life (fucked-up families, drugs, violence, neglect), keep them in a kennel with other dogs (low income housing projects far away from the "decent" middle class neighborhoods and schools), you can't be surprised when they act like dogs.

For every 'miracle' kid you hear about who escapes this background, there are 100 more who don't.

[anti-NAFTA]

9. yeah i'm a liberal

I always see people as having a conscience whether it is a selfish-rationalist one or a benevolent one. I have always been against the death penalty because I don't believe anyone truly deserves to die.

But this movie shocked me. These people in this film, both the woman and her customers, are less than human. I always see people as human. That's why this film was so shocking.

I think the victims, had they lived, should have been charged.

Also disturbing is Wuornos's history. Her father's best friend raped her continously starting at the age of 8, and her father beat her when she told him about it. THESE PEOPLE ARE NOT HUMAN!

[camero]

13. It disturbed me too

It disturbed me even more because I am slightly one of these "miracle kids" that Crisco speaks of. The saving grace was that there were also middle class people around where I saw a different point of view.

Crisco is right about this. We should not be surprised. I've seen them.

The rape scene was what disturbed me the most. Because I've heard that cry before.

Sorry that I couldn't offer anything more substantive at this point. That film will haunt me for god knows how long.

[capriccio]

17. Humans

Let me tell you who some humans are:

Saddam
George W. Bush
Howard Dean
Bob Dylan
Jon Stewart
Osama
Tom DeLay
Chaarlize Theron
Fabio
Dennis Kucinich
Rush
etc.

Once you understand the infinite variety of us, instead of SCREAMING that certain people who you don't understand or people who are foreign to your own experience are not human (God help us), you really can't get a handle on what humanity is all about.

[anti-NAFTA]

18. No one in your list is as far from what I perceive to be human as

the characters in Monster.

These people are absolute scum.

[NashVegas]

21. It's Tragic

This may sound horribly cold, but there have been some death row cases in which I sometimes thought it amounted to a mercy killing.

To kill is to destroy a piece of one's own humanity.

[gator_in_Ontario]

11. I saw the movie yesterday too

but didn't really feel worse about America because of it. There are people all over the globe that do these things and worse to their fellow humans. Also, I have had the "pleasure" of being acquainted with several Prostitutes in the past, and some of them make Wournos look like a beauty queen. They had no problem finding customers.
*note* overheard in the ladies washroom after the movie: "All wife beaters should have to watch this movie".

[anti-NAFTA]

12. I sort of agree with the ladies you overheard

there are some thing you just don't do to a woman.

[Skittles]

14. ask men what their deepest, darkest fears are

ask women the same thing. Marvel at the extreme difference in intensity of these fears. All men should have to understand that fear but very few of them do.

[anti-NAFTA]

15. I don't understand eom

[camero]

16. We men pretty much have a chance

In any violent encounter. Women while having some chance do have less then men.

[gator_in_Ontario]

24. The best answer I ever heard to that was years ago

by comedienne Elaine Boosler (sp?). When asked if she would like to take a walk down by the river she replies, "Are you kidding?! I have my vagina with me!" That's the difference in a nutshell.

[anti-NAFTA]

20. highly recommended film

every thinking American should see this movie. It poses the question: Where did we go wrong?

[LynneSin]

22. We have Bush in the White House - we are that bad

:cry:

[anti-NAFTA]

23. you should watch it

[yowzayowzayowza]

25. So whatz the redeeming value...

of this movie? This brand of ugly is all too prevalent... Just last month I'm waiting in line in the bank drive thru and am startled by a tap at the window. A dirty dingy VERY pregnant woman pleeds for a ride. How could I refuse? After completing my business I pick her up. She proceeds to describe her dismal financial/employment situation concluding with an offer of services. My gawd!!!

So, what is it I'm gunna get from this movie experience?

[anti-NAFTA]

26. Are you serious?

That's like the type of shit in Monster. Why did you pick her up? What did you say when she offered you "service"?

[yowzayowzayowza]

28. Well...

She didn't look really dangerous or like a druggy. Again, how could ya refuse? After her offer I spent a moment reattaching my jaw and declined by pointing out that I am married and have all those services covered. If there were a cop or a police station along the next block er so before I dropped her off, I'd have turned her in. As I live in a suburban area it was very suprising as well as disturbing.

[Liberal Christian]

27. It's more complex than you're painting it

It's the easy way out to define all the victims and Wuornos as scum. I notice you don't mention Selby, who came from a solid, middle class family and was raised with all the advantages that brings, except the biggest one, which was the freedom to be herself.

In Lee's moral universe, the first murder was justified as self-defense. That victim, the rapist, was scum.

After that, Lee, in her own mind, had a moral justification for each successive murder. I'm not saying it was right or true or what anyone else would consider as moral, but it fit in with the way in which her mind and life experience had shaped her morality. Certainly, that shaping was influenced by the rotten childhood and adolescence she had. Certainly, it was influenced by the treatment she'd had at the hands of others. And it was also shaped by her longing to find love and be normal. When she thought she had a chance for that, she was willing to do whatever she could to make it happen. That doesn't justify her actions, but the genius of this film is that it helps us to understand them. It doesn't ask us to accept them, but it does ask us to try to understand.

And not all the victims were scum. But finally, there was desperation. The "reasons" she "had" to kill them became less about revenge and more about trying not to get caught.

I'm trying not to give too much away here for those who haven't seen the movie.

Does this movie show unsavory things about some people who live in this country? Sure. So do all kinds of films. Frankly, the value system I see in "The Wars of the Roses," that black comedy with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner disturbed me far more than the one in this movie.

[gator_in_Ontario]

I wish I could have put it so well...n/t

[supernova]

29. It makes humanity look bad

You think there aren't Aileen Wournoses all over the planet?

Thing again.

But evidently she felt driven to kill for the years of mistreatment. I'm not excusing her behavior, but the fact is you can only heap so much abuse on one life before they start reacting like a caged wild animal.

[DU GrovelBot]

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[pfitz59]

31. Don't need a movie to make country look bad!

Take wrong turn anywhere USA and "Monster" comes to life! We all live in the Ptomekin Village! Do you have a computer? Do you post at DU? Congratulations, you just stepped to the head of the class! Class warfare is never ending... Just hidden away at truck stops, dead end valleys and alleyways all across the nation. The rallying cry is: "We can do better!"