Before watching Blonde, I had no sort of concrete knowledge of the personality that was Marilyn Monroe. Of course, I knew she was an actress and that the photos taken of the blonde bombshell led to the term sex symbol. But what I didn’t know, I was curious to learn. With the media already circulating buzz about the upcoming movie, I decided to take the time to sit down and watch Blonde for myself. Boy, was that a mistake.
Warning: major spoilers ahead.
Introduction
This movie is a whopping 2 hours and 45 minutes long. It provides an overview of Marilyn’s entire life, from when she was a young child to the person stealing every man’s attention on the big screen. Blonde begins with the broken home life of Marilyn, born Norma Jeane Mortenson, who never met her father. The movie then jumps to Marilyn as an adult starting in the movie industry. It brings the viewers through her life, including her early relationships and marriages with Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller. It touches upon the affair with John F. Kennedy before ending with the star’s sad death in her home.
Breakdown
About halfway through this movie, it felt like a chore to get through. But after finishing, I have many topics to comment on.
Marilyn Monroe’s Overall Portrayal: While Ana de Armas did well at bringing such an iconic person to life, the movie didn’t shed a true light on Marilyn as a woman. The viewer watches Marilyn struggle with her life, look for ways to be seen, and recover from the trauma she’d endured at an early age— all under a misogynistic view. For example, Marilyn calls every romantic interest “Daddy” and needs a man to comfort her in times of need. Marilyn was so much more than how the public perceived her. She was a brilliant woman that made great strides in her life. Marilyn absolutely did not need to be victimized in this way, and it just tarnishes the way the public is able to remember her.
Inaccuracies: After hearing that the movie would dive deep into Marilyn’s life, I assumed it would stick to an accurate depiction of the late actress. Then I watched the three-way relationship between Charles Chaplin Jr., Eddy Robinson Jr., and Marilyn. When I saw this, I was stunned and decided to search the web for the information I could find. After stumbling upon a few websites, it was clear that this specific scene of the movie was inaccurate. Netflix describes the movie as a “fictional story”, but when you are out promoting the movie as the life and death of Marilyn Monroe, it seems like these statements contradict one another.Â
Confusion with Characters:Â As I said before, I came into watching this movie without prior knowledge of Marilyn Monroe’s background. However, many times there was no explanation of the background characters. At one point, on the set of a movie, Marilyn has a breakdown and scratches her face. e. A man comes in to calm her down and help her while a doctor injects her neck with a needle. For the rest of the movie, this man helps Marilyn and calms her down with medicine. To this day, after searching and searching online, I cannot figure out who this man was or if he was even a real person. I spent lots of time trying to piece together information that should have been made clear to the viewers.Â
“I am trying to find myself. Sometimes that’s not easy.” —Marilyn Monroe
Final thoughts
Bottom line: I would NOT, I repeat NOT recommend this movie to someone who is a fan of the late actress. This movie does have its moments of showing the beauty of who she was, but overall it leaves the audience feeling as though Monroe was victimized all of her life and never able to accomplish much because she was battling inner demons. But she was much more than that. Marilyn escaped her dark childhood and made a name for herself in the industry. Although her past caught up with her, we must not forget everything she achieved. An article that dives more into the positive aspects of her life can be found here.Â