Shortly after being released, the newest cinema depiction of Marilyn Monroe’s life, Blonde, has not received favorable reviews. Many viewers felt that it did not do her justice. If the bad reviews aren’t enough to hurt its success, the growing number of celebrities and influencers calling for people to boycott the film surely is.
There are a number of reasons that audience members have complained about the movie, especially women. Many feel as though the film did reflect Marilyn fairly or honestly, or even in a respectable light. While the original book version of the story may do the tale more justice, the manner in which it was directed made the film feel less like its intentions were to pay tribute to the late star, and more like they simply revived her story to violate her once again.
Consider being dead for decades and still being viewed by the majority as simply a sex symbol of an era. Though Blonde in some instances started to point out Marilyn’s capability and intelligence, it never fully commits. Instead, it leans, like other biopics before it, into how others viewed Marilyn and didn’t focus enough on how she saw herself. Even in some of the more abstractly directed moments of the film, like the three-way sex scene and the manhole scene, the obscure graphics and edits still seem to emphasize Marilyn’s body, rather than her experience and feelings. This prevents these moments from feeling empowering. Rather than being in control of her sexuality, she is once more painted the way that men see her.
In part, the issue with this film is that it’s focused on a female icon, yet the voice of the film lacks a female perspective on the topic. However, what likely created the most difficulty for the storyline was the film format. With a three-hour limit, the movie failed to pack in every event that it needed to. As a result, the film felt rushed, choppy, and at times even hard to follow. Viewers also miss significant life moments that reflect who Marilyn is due to the time restraint. In fact, it’s apparent that the format affected several aspects of the movie.
Between her traumatic childhood and the seemingly impossible lifestyle she was expected to uphold as an actor, Marilyn’s life was simply too dense and layered to be packed into a film. Because of this, many movies about Marilyn tend to focus on one aspect of her life so that it has the time to be properly explored. Blonde, however, attempted to cover her life from early childhood to her death, by jumping around in time. Because the focus touched on all of these moments, there’s no time left to expand on and settle into any of the impactful moments in her life. This makes it harder to fully understand how Marilyn felt, and thus, it is harder for the audience to connect to her.
Further, viewers also don’t get a formal introduction to a lot of the secondary characters, so it’s harder to understand the influence that they had on her life. This seems to perpetuate the sexist and negative views of her, showing her as a woman that jumped around from lover to lover. If the film storyline had allowed the audience to fall in love with these men alongside Marilyn, it would become more clear that she was simply a woman that wanted to be loved, and it was usually the men around her that let her down.
Perhaps the most significant complication that the movie format creates, is how little time it permits viewers to get to know who she really is. Audiences almost solely see her when she is surrounded by other people and can’t give a genuine response. Because she was a performer, she always put on a mask for those around her, or those around her were the ones putting the mask on her by controlling her life. There are a few moments from the film where viewers hear her internal thoughts, but they seem to make her appear mentally unstable, instead of helping the audience to understand her. It would have been extremely beneficial for the storyline to incorporate more of these internal dialogues, where she responded honestly or how she actually felt, despite what she said out loud or how she acted on the surface.
This all said, it’s clear that Blonde didn’t add much to the conversation about Marilyn Monroe, and a large part of that is clearly the film format and the constraints it placed on the plot line. If the story had been adapted to a miniseries format, it would have likely done better. The story probably wouldn’t be enough content to stay interesting while remaining respectful to Marilyn’s legacy in a television series format, but a film format obviously wasn’t enough time, so the miniseries structure seems like a much better option. In addition to allowing the proper amount of time, a miniseries would also allow the story to section events in her life without it feeling choppy.
When focusing on real individuals, especially those like Marilyn who were mistreated and taken for granted in their life, respectful portrayal is essential. Though that doesn’t seem to have been achieved by Blonde, it certainly points out all the ways that filmmakers have failed her before when adapting her life. As much as it feels like exploiting Marilyn to adapt her personal life to the big screen that consumed her when she was here, it probably won’t stop.
The least that filmmakers who take on the task can do is consider the format and light in which they present her life, to ensure that it does her justice. Marilyn’s life deserves a re-telling that doesn’t continue the belittling view of her image, but instead shows her for who she was. She was a talented, insightful woman, ahead of her time, who just wanted to be loved — not possessed, not lusted after, not controlled — just loved.