MovieChat Forums > An Officer and a Murderer (2012) Discussion > REAL LIFE VERSUS THE MOVIE

REAL LIFE VERSUS THE MOVIE

posted 12 years ago by FloatingOpera7
13 replies | jump to latest

I watched this film over the weekend on Lifetime Channel. I thought it was pretty good and they didn't stray too far from the actual incident in Canada. However, one big noticeable difference is that the real guy was a lot more handsome! Gary Cole made him look pretty ugly and old, very pathetic. The real guy was so good looking and successful looking that it was indeed very hard to believe he could be a serial rapist, murderer and sexual weirdo. The wife in the film was portrayed as a beautiful blonde who enjoyed the "good life". In real life his wife was not attractive and had dark hair and glasses. Also, in this movie the guy attacked mainly beautiful blondes. In real life he attacked various young women and it made no difference whether they were beautiful or what hair color they had. Most of them appeared to be very ordinary every day girls. It's so Hollywood to have his victims be hot women with blond hair. One of the women in the movie (the woman he tied up and told her to pose for photos lying on her stomach had a great body with great legs and butt) she looked straight out of a Hollywood magazine cover.

I don't know why they keep changing things a bit. In the real life event, he never went into the neighbor's house and never wanted to attack the neighbor's daughter as shown in the movie. This bastard did everything he did for pure amusement and to pleasure himself. Since he was so respected, successful and the last person anyone would suspect, he thought he could get away with it. Glad they caught him. I hope he stays in that jail until he dies.

[–] lanechanger 12 years ago

Are you serious? The real guy was not handsome, just creepy looking.

[–] FloatingOpera7 12 years ago

I thought he was good looking personally at least the photos of him in uniform. He was tall and handsome. Gary Cole did not look anything like him. And you have to agree that the wife certainly didn't look attractive in real life. They showed a photo of her in the documentary that preceded the movie about the real life incident. The wife had big glasses, was short and had dark hair. In the movie she was a tall pretty blonde.

You also have to agree that in the movie he was attacking gorgeous single blondes alone at home. He had no specific type and was attacking all kinds of women at random.

[–] lazygafiltafish 12 years ago

Most of the women in the movie he attacked were brunettes. The only blonde one was the single mom and one more that went to the hospital.

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[–] fiveforme 12 years ago

I am Canadian so I can tell you what happened in real life.

When Williams walked into the interrogation room, his boots were still on his feet. The officer who was questioning him (who is a total awesome cop in real life, too) was pretending that he was just showing Williams a courtesy by having him come in on a Sunday and agreeing to be discreet. Williams thought he was untouchable. He’d gotten away with so much already that he had become downright smug. He was told why he was there, and they just wanted to rule him out quickly and quietly. At this point Williams had no idea they already had his tire tracks. So Williams is delighted to cooperate. In fact, he asks “What can I do to help?” They ask for his DNA. Done. They ask for his boots. Done … but in real life, you can see in Williams’ face that he knew he'd made a huge mistake for wearing the same boots to the interview that he wore to Jessica’s house. He just gave them everything they asked for because he was used to giving orders and having them obeyed, no questions asked, and had (IMO) a god complex. To him, the cops were no different than the minions he worked with day after day. If he hadn’t agreed to hand over his DNA, his boots, everything he’d been asked for, it would have been an illegal search and all tossed out. As it was, he ended up confessing before he even talked to a lawyer, so it didn’t really matter. The important thing was getting this POS off the streets. Forever. He is one really sick person, God only knows how much more he would have done if he hadn't been caught when he was, but it would have been much worse.

There is a one hour special that shows about 45 minutes of the actual interview with Williams. If anyone is interested, I’ll look for the link and post it.

[–] SayNoToRemakes 11 years ago

I saw the interview on Investigation Discovery. That was a trip.

[–] Meldove 11 years ago

by - FloatingOpera7 on Mon Jul 23 2012 13:24:50

However, one big noticeable difference is that the real guy was a lot more handsome! Gary Cole made him look pretty ugly and old, very pathetic. The real guy was so good looking and successful looking that it was indeed very hard to believe he could be a serial rapist, murderer and sexual weirdo.

The real guy was more handsome?! Are you kidding me? Williams is downright creepy looking. I think Gary Cole is much better looking.

[–] oldahus 11 years ago

You're entitled to your opinion, but Gary Cole is far better looking. I remember him from the movie Fatal Vision (another movie where he played a murderer military man). Compare the pictures again.

The real Russell Williams (that creep) has a big basketball forehead with a patch of hair that won't leave. His mouth reminds me of the mouth of Ernie the muppet and so does his nose. The only thing he may have had going for him was his height.

I agree with you on the wife thing. What, were they afraid to make her average looking?

I thought that the interrogation in the movie was poorly executed and does not give the real life encounter justice.

[–] yrussell 11 years ago

I think the reason he looks "ugly" to some of you is because you know what he's like underneath. To some people (myself included), knowing their personality has a big influence on how you rate a person's looks. YR

[–] quidittee 11 years ago

I totally agree with you and I notice that this happens a lot - they always make the wife MORE attractive in the movie because it is a bit difficult to believe that the wife is far less attractive than the man.
I think a lot of people think Williams is ugly and creepy because they know him as THE KILLER - but I agree, he is much better looking and less dirty looking than Cole.
Where they dug up a pretty blond and put her in the place of the totally unappealing real life wife - no clue - but that was the first thing I noticed when I saw the movie.

[–] couthlessgal 9 years ago

Actually, he did break into the neighbors house, he stole the 13 yr old girl's underwear.