Here's the only reason, IMHO:
Posted on 01/21/2006 11:56:21 AM PST by Dane
Canada greets 'Karla' with outrage By ANNE NEVILLE NEWS STAFF REPORTER 1/21/2006
Laura Prepon has the title role in "Karla," a film that will open in the Buffalo area later this year.
Karla Homolka served 12 years in prison and was released last summer amid a storm of public opposition.
For Western New Yorkers who remember the early 1990s Ontario sex slayings by Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka, the movie "Karla" may shed light on the psyche of an unlikely and vicious killer.
But Michael Sellers, the film's Los Angeles-based producer and writer, is finding that people in Ontario are so outraged by Karla Homolka that they have condemned the film without seeing it.
In a telephone interview from Toronto before "Karla" opened Friday in 82 theaters across Canada, Sellers said, "What's happening up here is that a lot of people are just fixating on the part that comes from her point of view, and it just makes them crazy, because they hate her so much."
The movie is not being shown in St. Catharines, where Homolka and Bernardo abducted, raped, tortured and killed Leslie Mahaffy, 14, in 1991, and Kristen French, 15, in 1992. The pair also killed Homolka's younger sister by drugging her to rape her in 1990.
The film, which stars Laura Prepon, who currently plays Donna on "That '70s Show," and Misha Collins, is expected to open later this year in Buffalo, which close but emotionally more distant" from the case.
Sellers said he decided to make "Karla" after the success of the film "Monster," the true story of serial killer Eileen Wuornos, for which Charlize Theron won a Best Actress Oscar.
"In all this controversy up here, and criticism, they talk about (us) being opportunistic, and yeah, I'm an independent producer, and I look at "Monster' and think, "Wow, I could make that movie for the kind of budget that I have to work with, and yet the film could be good and go far.' " said Sellers.
"Karla" is based largely on transcripts of an in-depth psychiatric interview Homolka underwent eight years into her prison term. Although Homolka was denied parole at that time, she was freed in July after serving 12 years. Homolka got the relatively light sentence in exchange for testifying against Bernardo, but prosecutors said that if videotapes the killers made of the attacks had been found earlier, Homolka would have been charged with murder.
Sellers said that using the transcripts of the psychiatric interview "gives us the ability for Karla to narrate, which this kind of a story needs . . . but unlike "Monster,' she wasn't allowed to narrate unimpeded, she is challenged by the psychiatrist. Karla is such a manipulator, and if you're going to depict her accurately, she'll be manipulating the audience."
Sellers said Christal Films, the Montreal-based film distributor, "thought about opening it in Buffalo now, but they didn't because it's just so close to St. Catharines it would be like putting it there. We wanted to avoid that, so it'll be later after the dust has settled."
The outcry against the film was so strong that Montreal's annual World Film Festival withdrew its invitation after pressure from the festival's sponsors. Sellers said "Karla" will be shown at film festivals in Santa Barbara and Cleveland, "and one way or another it'll be out in the U.S. later in the spring."
Ingrid Hamilton, an independent Toronto publicist who is working with Christal Films, said 45 people attended the 1:30 p.m. screening Friday at one downtown Toronto theater, "and that is a lot on a weekday. So I think that's a sign that it will probably bring people out."
The film was panned by the Toronto Globe and Mail reviewer.
Here's the only reason, IMHO:
Not this nasty b!tch, she shoulda been killed in prison or shortly after release.
This movie cannot help but reinforce the current view that the Liberals are corrupt in every way that matters.
What is she doing out of prison after serving just 12 years for raping and murdering 2 young girls?
IIRC, she cut a plea-bargain with desperate prosecutors - since she was the only witness to Bernardo's actions - before the full extent of her involvement was known.
Then she helped lure other girls to their rape and murder. There is even tape of her participating in the attacks!
Stop making excuses for sadistic murderers!
I wouldn't be getting my hopes up. This is "True Crime Stories" pulp magazine stuff set to video.
This was bogus drugstore paperback psychology in Patty Hearst's case and the same is true here. These findings only fly because judges and lawyers are such credulous chumps.
Is there no bottom to the depravity they immerse themselves in?
Is there no bottom to the depravity they immerse themselves in?
Karla Homolka served her younger sister up to Bernardo....it's hard to fathom that such an evil person would be walking the streets free.
The only people who ever saw those tapes were lawyers and jurors. Several of the jurors were interviewed afterwards and they all stated that Homolka's participation in the videos appeared both scripted and coerced. In fact they said the teenage victims were smiling in the videos and reading scripted lines as well. There appear to be several versions of this story and the version you read in the Canadian media is garbage. In fact the Canadian media is basically garbage with or without Karla Homolka.
Sure. The release of this movie just before an election will remind people how lenient the Liberals are with criminals. In fact, every federal inmate got a $250 heating bill rebate today just in time for them to vote Liberal on Monday. Hopefully, Canadians will read this material on the net and bypass the media filters and vote Conservative!
If you really believe that Karla is the victim, you are simply too delusional to debate.
Aside from that there seems to be some sort of a political dimension to the story which is not being reported at all.
For starters there's no way in the world that guys like Michael Bryant (Ontario AG) or any of those liberal pols ought to give a rats ass about some sort of soap opera like that but, clearly, they view it as life and death.
Then there's the little question of Paul Bernardo leaving home at something like 16, and then a couple of short years later he's earning a degree in college, seems to have wheels and no real cares in life and all the women he can use...
Where does the money for that come from??
The answer turns out to be that Bernardo was working as a male prostitute in Toronto early on and you read that in some of the articles written at the time of the trials.
I don't know much about male prostitutes, damned near nothing in fact, but one thing you can say about them with terribly little chance of being wrong is that their clientelle does not include members of the poor.
One would guess that more often than not ,such a clientelle would include politicians, possibly including people like Michael Bryant in fact.....
The conspiracy theory which I've seen bantered around on the net is that Bernardo's clientelle included liberal party pols, and that some of those guys feel that their innocent little butt-boy was corrupted by the evil witch Homolka. Some have even suggested that the Ontario govt's conduct towards Karla might be motivated at least in part by threats of blackmail.
Others have suggested that with the tapes having been destroyed, Karla is the only thing really keeping Paul Bernardo in prison. Get rid of her, and some of his friends in high places could figure a way to let Paul out.
The part about Bernardo having been a male prostitute definitely checks out. IF the part about him and Canadian pols and lobbyists is also non-fiction, then the motives of the canadian government in its treatment of Karla would become hugely suspect.
There was a sea-change in the government's treatment of Karla at some point after she'd been in prison for several years. Every professional analysis of her had produced the same basic information, i.e. that she was another extreme case of psychological conditioning and control like Patty Hearst and was basically not much more than another victim, and the crown had originally told her she'd be out on parole in three or four years. It's kind of hard to believe that the Toronto Sun singlehandedly changed all of that to murdering, psychopathic bitch and every day of a 12-year sentence PLUS the illegal 810.2 conditions after her release.
No she is a psycho bitch who desrves to die. Please spare me your conspiracy theories. I AM very well versed in this case and I don't read Canadian newspapers. I am in the US.
After reading your last reply, I realize that I WAS correct about you. You are in a delusional state.
Doesn't sound like it....
The following statements amount to the several professional analyses of Karla and the condition she was in when the system first got hold of her in 93. To say that there is a sort of a gap between these reports and the BS you read in most Canadian newspapers is a sort of an understatement. Of course, American media gets its info on this story from the Canadian media version, and you are getting your daily diet of rubbish from them.
Dr. Malcom's Observations Diagnosis
Karla shows no sign of any psychotic disorder.
There are, I realize, indications of some residual organic brain disorder; but these are minimal and they should not interfere with her rehabilitation.
I could not detect the signs of any personality disorder. She does not show the instability, impulsiveness, and inappropriateness of the person with Borderline Personality Disorder. There is certainly a crisis in self-image at the moment but this, it seems to me, is a reaction to her total defeat as a citizen, a wife, and a family member. She does not satisfy the criteria for the diagnosis of the Antisocial Personality Disorder.
She is anxious and depressed but both of these states make sense in terms of her recent history and her present situation. Thus there is a dysthymia 300.40. This is a disorder in where there is a chronically depressed mood as a response to certain disagreeable life situations. I was able to ascertain that Karla has suffered from sleep disturbances, a low energy level, low self esteem, a diminished ability to make difficult decisions, and a marked feeling of hopelessness. This is dysthymia, a condition that can definitely be helped by psychotherapy.
In addition there are all of the factors that constitute psychological torture as defined by Amnesty International. There was social isolation, exhaustion stemming from deprivation of sleep, monopolization of perception through the exhibition of intensely possessive behavior, threats of death against the person or the person's relatives, humiliation and denial of power, and the administration of drugs or alcohol to diminish self control. Karla was systematically subjected to all of these things.
Furthermore it is extremely interesting that these same variables are found in virtually every case of wife abuse. The mose pervasive emotional consequence of batting is the development of a condition called "Learned helplessnes". This is a term that is used in biology to describe the response of an organism repeatedly and unpredictably subjected to painful stimulae. The most commonly observed response to such treatment includes feelings of powerlessness, passivity, a diminished capacity for problem solving and a general unwillingness to try to avoid painful stimulae. As is now well known women who have been subjected to contant battering commonly show all of these tendancies until they suddenly come to realize that with the next battering death will ensue. At such a point they will expose themselves to great danger by running away or by striking out at the person who is battering them. Karla went hrough all of this but in the end, in early January 1993, she escaped to a hospital and for the first time revealed the history of the physical and psychological abuse to which she had been subjected.
Now there also are, in this case, many indications of the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In this disorder, certain symptoms develop following a psychologically distressing event that is outside the usual range of human experience. The experience in question would be no ordinary one. It would be a stressor that would induce terror and helplessness. Thus there is often a serious threat to one's own life or physical integrity. There may be a threat to the safety of one's relatives. There may be the experience of witnessing the injury or death of another person. There is no doubt at all that what Karla was forced to experience constituted a major stressor and this stressor was composed of numerous reinforcing events. All of this warrants the making of the diagnosis Post Traumatic Stress Disorder 309.89.
Recovery from such an intense experience does not occur suddenly. It takes many years...
Karla was subjected to repeated sadistic sexual attacks. She was humiliated, beaten, tied up and raped over a period of years. She was manipulated into being a participant in what eventuated in the death of a much loved sister. She was advised on her wedding night that her new husband was a rapist. She was told that if ever tried to leave her husband he would track her down and kill her. Or else he would kill her remaining sister and her parents. She was living with a sexual sadist and she was convinced that from this bewildering fate there was no escape.
Dr. Long's Observations
Personality testing indicates a very depressed and emotionally withdrawn person suffering severe remorse for her participation in the illegal acts referred to.
Furthermore, this woman suffers from and requires treatment for the effects of extremely severe prolonged exposure to her husband's sadistic acts and the ominous atmosphere he created. The latter culminating in a deep belief that she too would someday become the victim of his murderous behavior. Her submissiveness results from deep psychological conflicts with hostile wishes which she had learned early in life to counter through the adoption of submissive and rather passive behavior and coping techniques. This is not to indicate that she would give form to these aggressive impulses through aggressive behaviour.
Neither was there evidence of masochistic tendancies in terms of finding pleasure by being hurt herself nor her observing the suffering of others. It is believed that she was sufficiently hoodwinked and intimidated by Paul Bernardo that she found herself in a compromising position as a result of a sequence of experiences with him that escalated in the intensity of their deviousness and severity. This reached a climax with the death of her sister and, from that point on, she believed that she was trapped in the same manner that an abused wife considers herself to be trapped and then having to fend for her life.
It is not intended to excuse her morally for the part she played in the illegal acts she carried out: she was technically of sound mind and free of disease of the mind of sufficient severity to cloud her awareness or cause her to be unable to appeciate the nature and quality of her acts. Indeed, she was a victim herself and is in serious need of continued psychiatric care. Treatment is essential for Dysthymia and for a post-traumatic stress syndrom which is chronic and severe.
Dr. Arndts Observation
Indeed Karla's experience since her age 17, could be to some degree, compared to the experiences of concentration camp survivors who as well experienced horrendous tragedies and had to go through and perform actions in order to survive that under normal circumstances they would clearly have stayed away from, but in the interest of self-preservation or in the interest of preserving other people's lives, did see themselves helpless and went through the actions as had been required of them.
Dr. Brown's Observations
On admission to the Prison for Women in 1993, Ms. Teale had been diagnosed by two consultant psychiatrists as suffering from a severe Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder resulting from what is commonly known as "Wife battering".
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders defines this as the development of characteristic symptoms following a psychologically traumatic event that is generally outside the range of usual human experience. Stressors producing this disorder include various natural disasters, accidental man-made disasters or deliberate man-mad disasters (bombings, torture, death camps). The disorder is apparently more severe and longer lasting when the stressor is of human design. Among the typical symptoms are depression, "Psychic numbing" or a loss of feeling and interest in social activities and impaired memory and difficulty in concentrating.
Frequently, there is a concomitant physical component to the trauma which may even involve direct damage to the central nervous system (e.g. Head trauma).
From my own examination of Ms. Teale, I concurred with the diagnosis of her previous therapists, and continued with the treatment programme that they had initiated, including the gradual reduction of the fairly heavy amounts of medication that she had obviously required at the earlier stages of treatment.
The range of traumas to which she had been subjected for a period of five years at the hands of Mr. Bernardo was quite extensive, and her own accounts seemed to be well corroborated by statements from family, friends and examining physicians. These traumes included physical assaults including blows to the head using foreign objects, sexual abuse including many personal indignities, a wide range of psychological abuse including social isolation, the deliberate removal of any feeling of self esteem and self assertiveness and the enforced misuse of alcohol and mind altering drugs.
Ms. Teale demonstrated quite clearly all the symptoms of a severe and chronic Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and included some memory impairment or amnesia. This memory loss could be a result of various factors, either singly, or, more probably in combination, and these factors include 1. Psychological repression of events that are too painful for the individual to bear. This is a completely unconscious defense mechanism over which the individual has no control. 2. Damage due to head injury, which may be temporary or permanent. 3. The misuse or abuse of alcohol and/or drugs.
In conclusion, I am of the opinion that Karla has been consistantly truthful in her recollections of the past events in this case. She continues to show a natural concern for the areas for which she has amnesia and is aware that predictions regarding complete or partial recovery are not possible. She continues to have no memory for her own involvement with Jane Doe, and this is consistent with her participation having occured against her will and under the empowered direction of her ex-husband.
Again:
In addition there are all of the factors that constitute psychological torture as defined by Amnesty International. There was social isolation, exhaustion stemming from deprivation of sleep, monopolization of perception through the exhibition of intensely possessive behavior, threats of death against the person or the person's relatives, humiliation and denial of power, and the administration of drugs or alcohol to diminish self control. Karla was systematically subjected to all of these things.
Karla needed to be rescued. Subject a person to all of the above for six or seven years, and basically all bets are off as far as what society has any right to expect from that person in terms of behavior.
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