this would have been better if it stuck to the real events

There may be spoilers in this, so there's your warning!

I know nothing about the real killers, but I absolutely loved this movie as a black comedy. I pitied the Martha character and felt her downward spiral was plausible as shown here. Of course this is coming from the standpoint of someone who knows nothing about the real people or real incidents involved in this case. I thought Martha seemed incredibly desperate and crippled by low self esteem. And to be as intensely bitter and caustic as she is, we know she has had a very rough life, even though they didn't give detailed reasons as to why life has left her this way. I thought they did an adequate enough job hinting at this at the beginning, from her short-tempered interactions with the hospital staff to showing a family dynamic that appears unnurturing and basically alien to her (people don't become that estranged/resentful without good reason).

I definitely felt like she loved Ray. The rage and jealousy whenever he was with other women was pretty intense. Hell, she tried to drown herself when she caught him messing around with another woman. Then at the end when she found out for sure he was being unfaithful, she loved him enough to spend the rest of her life in jail instead of seeing him with another women. Plenty of other small moments here and there, plus a lot of the dialogue made me buy into it. Ray was a little more enigmatic. I really didn't pick up on him being someone psychotic (as he may have easily been in real life) but more like a suave sociopathic/remorseless type who will basically do whatever he wants without thinking twice about it (infidelity, theft, murder... whatever!).

I think the filmmakers basically took the skeleton of the true case and then turned it into a black comedy. Personally, I didn't mind that at all because I felt like it was bizarre, often hilarious and frequently disturbing. I LOVED how the victims were portrayed and how each were given these quirks. I found it to be clever. OK, it's borderline tasteless to take tragic real-life murder victims (or just use their names) and turn them into eccentric, often irritating weirdos/shrews. However, I liked this as a change of pace to how saintly murder victims are usually portrayed in these types of films. They might as well slap angel wings and a halo on them most the time. There's really no documentation about how these women behaved in real life anyway, so why not? I especially loved the penny-pinching, neurotic Christian lady. She was hilariously grating, yet when she's pleading for her life you actually did feel sorry for her. Loved that performance, plus the leads and the other women who played the victims, especially that oversexed southern belle who Martha calls "the hottest bitch I ever met" or whatever. I think the dialogue is often great and since I'm a huge fan of black/tasteless humor, I was laughing quite a bit watching this. Laughing and wincing. I've watched this like five times since I bought it a few months ago and it seems to get better with each viewing.

But like I said, it helps I am completely in the dark about the Beck/Hernandez case, so I can enjoy this on its own terms as a work of fiction and not have any expectations about accuracy. If I actually knew more about this story I might not have the same reaction. Definitely a case of ignorance is bliss on my part, I know.


Click on my name for current standings/voting links for the Golden Hatchet Awards.

The same thing occurred to me. I was not familiar with the story before watching the movie, but afterwards I read an essay on the actual history (included with the Criterion DVD). Apparently Fernandez was into voodoo, believing he had supernatural seductive powers, and Beck was raped as a child and suffered psychotic episodes. As you point out, they both had families too.

In an interview, the writer/director admits he fabricated negative qualities for the victims. Making one a daffy, cheap old lady and another a streotypical America First booster type, is basically pandering to the Leftist social criticism of the time. While the characters are somewhat humorous the trick is cheap & trite, even slanderous.

Actually, I thought the movie was interesting on its own terms, and obviously the author has to choose very carefully what he does and doesn't include. In its own way, the film's story is very focused and including all those fascinating biographical details would have diluted some of its power (although complexity adds its own power). And I give credit where credit's due...the murders are not at all romanticized, and our sympathy is entirely with the victims of the brutal violence (unless you're Marguerite Duras, apparently).

But I do think the broad characterizations of the victims distracts from the films status as a kind of anti-Bonnie & Clyde and plays into the hands of those who would see it as a wacky, countercultural love story (see one of the posters) or some kind of political statement, as if the drowning of a small child was a really hip way to stick it to the bourgeoisie.