MONSTER (2003)
Limited Edition Blu-ray
Label: Second Sight Films
Region Code: B
Rating: Cert. 18
Duration: 109 Minutes
Audio: English PCM 2.0 and DTS-HD MA 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen(1.85:1)
Director: Patty Jenkins
Cast: Charlene Theron, Christina Ricci, Bruce Dern, Lee Tergesen, Pruitt Taylor, Marc Macaulay, Scott Wilson, Annie Corley
In the gritty based on true crime thriller Monster (2003) Charlize Theron (Mad Max: Fury Road) plays real life serial-killer Aileen Wuornos, a broken and near suicidal street hooker who meet Selby (Christina Ricci, Sleepy Hollow), a fictional character who is based on Wuornos real girlfriend Tyria Moore, at a lesbian bar where she goes to escape the rain. They chat it up and after an initial outburst from Aileen to clarify she is not gay they hang out and begin to spend time together. Selby is a lesbian who has recently been banished by her Christian father to live with her aunt (Annie Corley, TV's The Killing) in Florida in hopes of her turning straight, she's idealistic but naïve and rather dim to be honest. Her and Aileen end up bonding and falling in love, with Aileen convincing Selby to run away with her with promises of supporting her. It's established early on that Selby is aware that her new lover is a prostitute and she's okay with that.
Aileen continues to turns tricks by day to support her and Selby, they rent a motel room and things seem to be going good, but one night Aileen is picked up by a sadistic trick (Lee Tergesen, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning) and ends up killing him in self defense after she is horrifically brutalized and raped. After that nearly deadly encounter Aileen swears off hooking and is intent on quitting prostitution all together and turning legit, which proves much harder to do than she expects. She interviews for various office jobs but due to her limited education, lack of experience, and poor people skills she cannot land a job, and with no money coming in her and Selby's relationship starts to crumble under the strain. Wanting to hang onto the only happiness she seems to have ever known Aileen reluctantly starts hooking again; but she's been so traumatized by the assault that she projects violent intent on each of the tricks and kills them before they can harm her, ten stealing their money and cars to support herself and Selby. Aileen had come clean about the self-defense murder to Selby earlier but she keeps the recent string of murders to herself until much later, when the murders become big news and police start closing in on her.
Wuornos is portrayed as someone with severe psychological issues with a past marked by sexual violence at a young age. Jenkins makes efforts to portray her as both victim and victimizer, which is a big ask when making a film about a serial killer, but her script and Theron's transformative portrayal manage it quite deftly in my opinion, but I can still see how the families of Wuornos victims see this as painting her in a kinder light than maybe it should. She was a woman with issues who had terrible things done to her, and in turn she did terrible things, and I think the movie attempts to at least see it from both sides, but your mileage may vary. Regardless, as just a slice of serial killer cinema detached from everything else and watched as a movie without that baggage this is a gripping film with terrific performances from Theron and Ricci. Like most true crime film it's not a film I like to revisit a bunch, but I it's ripened quite well on the cinematic vine and it still packs a punch.
Audio/Video: Monster (2003) arrives on region B locked Blu-ray in 1080p HD widescreen (1.85:1). The low-budget film has a scrappy, slightly desaturated look about it, almost looking 16mm at times in it's fuzzy, soft-focus non-finery, but it adds to the documentarian and gritty true-crime feel of the film. It might not be 1080p HD razor-sharp perfection but it looks accurate to the way I saw it in theaters 20-years ago and is significantly superior to the my nearly two decade old DVD edition. Audio comes by way of uncompressed English DTS-HD MA 5.1 or LPCM 2.0 stereo with optional English subtitles. Dialogue fidelity is optional and the score from BT (Gone in 60 Seconds) has some nice potency in the mix, as do soundtrack selections from Journey, Duran Duran, Flock of Seagulls and others. The stereo track seemed more authentic to my ears though and that's what I would say was my preferred listening option, but I am weird that way, unless it's a science fiction film or something quite dazzling I tend to prefer stereo and mono mixes, particularly for dialogue driven films.
Extras come by way of a mix of archival and new, starting with the archival we get the Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Patty Jenkins, Actor/Producer Charlize Theron and Producer Clark Peterson. It's a terrific group conversation as they break down the production process, the thought process behind many of the scenes, the score, securing the Journey song after meeting with reclusive singer Steve Perry who ended up hanging out with her during spot-production and became one of her best friends, and so much more. They also carry-over the 25-min Monster: The Vision and Journey; the 15-min Based on a True Story: The Making of Monster; 17-min of Deleted and Extended Scenes with Optional Director Commentary; the 16-min Monster: Evolution of the Score (16 min), the 2-min Original Trailer. The archival extras are pretty great in that they explore the true crime case and offer some solid behind-the-scene footage, the make-up process for Theron, and some great score related stuff with BT.
The newly produced Second Sight extras starts off with the 48-min Making a Murderer: a new interview with Director Patty Jenkins; the director gets into how she was a true-crime nut from way back, how she lived in Florida when the Wuornos killings were happening and how she was fascinated by the case and suspected there was much more to the story than just a deranged woman killing men. She then gets into writing it, based on letters Wuornos wrote while i prison, with Theron in mind. The 20-min Producing a Monster: a new interview with Producer Brad Wyman features him talking about how he ended up producing the film, how it was funded by vided companies, shooting locations, how well the film was received with both the limited and wide releases, and the make-up effects used to achieve the proper look for the character. The last of the new stuff is Light From Within: a new interview with DoP Steven Bernstein, a 44-min chat with the cinematographer who gives his background, how he got into shooting films after initially wanting to be a screenwriter, the various projects he's worked on (Bulletproof, Mr. Jealousy), and shooting Monster of course. He gets into the look of the film, his way of lighting film,
On top of the fantastic A/V presentation and extras we get a sturdy Rigid Slipcase with new artwork by artist Daniel Benneworth-Gray, 6 Collectors' Art Cards, and a 56-page Soft Cover Book with new essays; 'Romantic Heroin and Deranged Killer: The Mirror in Patty Jenkins' Monster (2003)' by Anton Bitel, Hannah Strong's 'Female of the Species: Women Serial Killers on Screen' & 'Everybody Wants a Thrill: The Many Shades of Monster" by Shelagh Rowan-Legg. It's a well made tome chock full of in-depth examinations of female serial killers and the films, plus it's fully illustrated with images from the film with cast and crew credits.
Special Features
- Archival Audio Commentary with Writer / Director Patty Jenkins, Actor / Producer Charlize Theron and Producer Clark Peterson
- NEW! Making a Murderer: a new interview with Director Patty Jenkins (48 min)
- NEW! Producing a Monster: a new interview with Producer Brad Wyman (20 min)
- NEW! Light From Within: a new interview with DoP Steven Bernstein (44 min)
- Monster: The Vision and Journey (25 min)
- Based on a True Story: The Making of Monster (15 min)
- Deleted and Extended Scenes with Optional Director Commentary (17 min)
- Monster: Evolution of the Score (16 min)
- Original Trailer (2 min)
Limited Edition Contents
- Rigid slipcase with new artwork by Daniel Benneworth-Gray
- Soft cover book with new essays by Anton Bitel, Hannah Strong & Shelagh Rowan-Legg
- 6 collectors Art Cards
Second Sight's limited edition slipbox edition of Monster (2003) is a well put together package that not only looks and sounds great with a wealth of deep-diving extras, but it looks great on your shelf with it's top-notch packaging.
Screenshots from the Second Sight Films Blu-ray:
Extras:
