Sally: Fisiculturismo e Assassinato

This is one of those stories that makes one feel hopeless about humankind. A couple of self-involved, lusty individuals stick together for several years of unhappy relationship. Eventually, even though they both wanted out, neither left until the bitter end.

Ray and Sally were two bodybuilders so wrapped up with their "career" that they kind of forgot about her two children destined to follow in their footpath of broken families and violent upbringing.

Sally gets the lion's share of the documentary and gives her own - biased - version of the story. Even if Ray was violent towards her, she did not leave. Especially her statement about being ready to move back with her parents rings false. She stated that "It was too late" without explaining why. What actually stopped her? Certainly not Ray, who was ready to move on with his lover...

Anyway, in true Netflix spirit, they try to turn Sally into a sort of saint martyr, and they manage because the audience seems not to have noticed the extremely relevant part of her reloading the shotgun to put another round into Ray, who was lying on the floor dying. That was what made her spend 25 years in prison - like it or not, reloading and shooting somebody on the ground rules out self-defense.

However, this is a depressing story were all the parties involved are equally repulsive and pathetic, a bunch of people totally unable to exercise any form of self-control or restrain and capable only to follow their instincts in a savage and brutal way.

And child abuse are really the underlying themes of Killer Sally. Without those, people would not get into or stay in clearly toxic relationships. What is apparent is that Sally and Ray both had dysfunctional childhoods, which led them to the perfect storm that was their six-year relationship. No one with healthy boundaries and a strong sense of self would marry a lover after a mere two months of courtship. That was the first red flag.

The maltreatment of Sally by her stepfather caused her to believe that she was flawed, undeserving and never good enough for anyone. She learnt to base her worth on what she did for other people. Ray, on the other hand, had to fend for himself after being abandoned by his parents; this led him to view people only as utility or an extension of himself as his young psyche sought to protect itself from obliteration. In other words, through opposite adaptation to emotional trauma, one became a giver and the other a taker.

There is a concept called repetition compulsion where we replay dynamics of previous significant relationships in current ones. Sally was unconsciously repeating her relationship with her stepfather with Ray. She could not step away from her marriage to Ray, even to protect her children, because she was determined for it to succeed in order to make up for the approval she could never gain from her stepfather. Ray became a substitute for Sally's stepfather; in shooting him, Sally was really trying to silence the crushing disapproval that she felt from the male figures in her life. There are no villains here, only children who deserved better parents and happier childhoods.

This documentary was a real roller coaster. But I'm so happy about the outcome even though I feel she didn't deserve all the time she did. It's embarrassing that her defense lawyer did an interview because he failed astronomically. I hope she is truly happy and living her best life. I don't believe for one second she was planning to kill her husband, I believe she was a battered woman and did what she had to do to save her life and potentially the lives of her children. Domestic abuse victims doesn't advertise the abuse, they hide it. And I just want to puke on the men defending him. Over and out.

Killer Sally is another true crime story like we are bombarded with on television lately. This case is well explained, with good interviews of both sides of the story, from killer to children, from best friends to attorneys. Everybody will have an opinion about the case and so did I. I think Sally McNeil was a battered woman but still she shouldn't have killed him. Leaving him was the only correct solution, like it always should be in these cases. I am sure he wasn't an easy man to live with but she had for sure a violent temper as well so these two should never have met each other or ar least not stayed together. I didn't found her a heartless or irritating woman. The only real cockroach of society in this well made documentary is Dan Goldstein, the former district attorney. A nasty narcist that enjoys being in the spotlights, that feeds on the misery of others. He's the only one that made me sick to the stomach.

I walked into this series not sure what to expect. So many other true crime docs recently have been so bad. Over dramatized. Slow. Etc. But I'm glad I took the chance with this one. The pacing was great. The interviews were not over sentualized. The doc maker definitely had an opinion and made it clear. I think people will walk away thinking this is about her being innocent. I disagree. Sally made some bad decisions, but I have a lot of empathy for her situation. I think the film is about how women are driven to a point of breaking from a lifetime of abuse. Nobody would talk about it. Excuses were made. The man's side is automatically taken. The BS just swept under the rug. Thru continued recognition that domestic abuse is real and that we should not turn a blind eye to it, hopefully more people can get out of the toxic relationship earlier before another life or lives are destroyed. On a side note. I found the exploration into the subculture of body building and muscle worshipping very interesting.