An excerpt from my script review for My Friend Dahmer which will be available 11/13/17:
2.) Plot Stability
Before we take a look at the previous two questions, one thing concerns me with the plot.
Derf wrote the graphic novel My Friend Dahmer but how much of it was speculation and/or pure fantasty?
Doing a bit of research, Derf was friends with Dahmer, but admits neither he nor his group of friends were close with the soon to be killer.
So trying to rationalize that Jeffrey Dahmer did everything he did because of his confused sexuality (an argument the script tries to make) is viable, but inconclusive since the intimate moments had by the Dahmer in the screenplay were written by someone who was afraid to get “too close” to him as a real friend.
The shitty family life, the drinking, even the few times he cuts open animals are factors of Jeff becoming Jeffrey, but not a definitive answer.
“Did he always demonstrate homicidal tendencies?”
Based on this script, yes.
And I’m sure there are enough first person accounts of him being a bit too thrilled with dead things.
“Was there some major life changing event that led to who he became?”
Maybe not, at least not concrete enough to say for certain.
There’s the obsession with the jogging doctor, and getting an erection at the doctor’s office (and then finishing at home), but again that’s speculation on behalf of the graphic novelist to craft an interesting story since I’m assuming Derf wasn’t actually there for either instance.
A better answer to that above question would be the shitty home life.
If his parents did truly fight as much as the story suggests (instances friends walked in on according to the story), and if Mrs. Dahmer was a complete bitch to her eldest son, the case could be made that it at least encouraged his fascination with unusual hobbies as a form of escape.
Now, I’m in no way defending Jeffrey Dahmer or what he did, just urging us to be careful with these biopic stories.
Whether someone we admire or despise, it’s important to remember that these stories are crafted to entertain us and the truth may be stretched to accomplish that.
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