As first published in: Whisperings of Anna ~ Issue No. 20, September/October 2022, pp. 85-91.
If you happen to have blonde hair… naturally or not naturally however, or if you're not out of shape in some way, you’re absolutely dumb… you’re considered dumb. I don't know why that is, I think it’s a very limited view. - Marilyn Monroe
Who is Marilyn Monroe? She’s young. She’s attractive. She’s vivacious. She’s ditzy. She’s innocent. She’s sexy. She’s glamorous. She’s trashy. She’s a walking, talking, list of contradictions that lives in and has remained in the public consciousness for over a half-century after her tragic death. She’s Blonde.
Who is Norma Jeane Mortenson (baptised Baker) on the other hand? That is a very different question. One that no one alive today can seem to provide an answer for or no one director can truly capture. Much like her alter-ego, Monroe has transcended beyond womanhood. Becoming a myth, a legend, an ideal of femininity from a culture long gone, in doing so losing all humanity. Which is, unfortunately, about as much humanity as this fictional ‘biopic’ gives her. It has been 60 years since she passed and audiences still haven’t received an accurate, faithful, RESPECTFUL depiction of one of the most famed, beloved and interesting lives led by a woman in history.
Not only is Blonde (2022) limited on a technical level (which is a shame given some of the cinematography, blocking, framing and score), the film is consistently indecisive on its colour grading and aspect ratios with little to no motivation or logic for doing so. For example, to show the passage of time or to highlight certain themes or motifs, with director Andrew Dominik even confirming:
There’s no story sense to it. It’s just based on the photographs.
Moreover, the script is utterly disgusting, despite being clear to underline that the plot is entirely fictional and is not meant to be an accurate portrayal of Monroe’s life (as hidden neatly in the film’s blurb). The graphic and harrowing subject matter is handled as tactlessly and indelicately as possible and is ultimately dismissive of the trauma Monroe experienced, warranting an NC-17 rating for its gratuitous use of intimate scenes. Personally, I had to pause watching the film halfway and finish watching it on a different day due to how unpleasantly uncomfortable it made me feel, to the point where Blonde (2022) successfully crosses genres from ‘biographical’ drama (although the term can only be applied loosely here) to psychological thriller and even horror. Whilst it could be argued that fictionalised histories are many of humanities favourite stories (see Shakespeare’s Henry V or films such as Goodfellas or Amadeus), the torture Monroe and by proxy, the audience, endures in this film does not seem to serve as a cautionary tale or to aspire fear in the Hollywood machine. Instead, it uses Monroe as a metaphor or vehicle to explore themes of mental health and psychology the way a traditional horror film would. The chronological film seems to draw the conclusion that all Monroe’s issues stem from her promiscuity, which in turn is a reaction to parental neglect, primarily her absent father. Hence, the film doesn’t actually delve into Monroe’s psyche as promised. It offers a very surface-level, one-note commentary of her, simultaneously hyper-sexualising and infantilising her, whilst demonising her for both. However, this may be a result of the real-life Monroe’s fame and ubiquity amongst audiences as the epitome of the ‘dumb blonde’ stereotype. Ergo, any attempt to show anything outside of this may be seen as Monroe acting out of character by modern audiences. The attempt to conform Monroe’s image to its stereotypical fiction is further underlined by the inaccurate period costuming, potentially in a bid to make the film more palatable to contemporaries.
This aside, the ‘meta’ rationale for the uncensored display of such indecent content holds no weight. Rather than coming across like the film is trying to show in all its ugliness how Monroe may have been treated by a patriarchal midcentury society, most audience members interpret Blonde (2022) as being shot in an almost sadistic male gaze. One which completely annihilates its protagonist, and to some extent, the actress portraying her. Even if the film wasn’t about Monroe specifically but just ‘generic blonde actress no.1’, there is never an excuse for depicting such explicit material for the sake of it. Dark taboo subjects can be portrayed without dehumanising the actress, especially when it doesn’t serve a purpose to further the message of the film. If there is one, it gets lost amongst the shock value, with the film unsure where to end or which direction to go in along the near 3-hour runtime. It instead becomes a highlight real of Monroe’s worst moments, which again (for the most part) are completely fabricated. On the contrary to mobilising the audience to empathise with Monroe, Blonde (2022) makes it a lot harder to root for a perpetual victim, who displays little to no agency and actually encourages viewers to switch off. Similar to the hero’s journey, watching the protagonist have everything snatched away only means something when you know how much they’ve struggled to succeed. Cinderella’s rags-to-riches, happily ever after only feels earnt due to how hard she worked to attend the ball and how she resisted her cruel step-family’s abuse. Compared to the 2022 portrayal of Marilyn,
[Cinderella] was kind of spunky. She accepted life as it was and went after things she wanted… she was a spirited girl. I don't think she needed the prince. - Ilene Woods, voice actress of ‘Cinderella’, 1950
Additionally, this perpetual victimhood insinuates that those struggling with mental illness have never experienced happiness, Monroe spending the majority of the film crying hysterically whilst naked, an almost Halloween costume of society’s view of her as a ‘manic sex kitten’. Viewing Blonde (2022) as a piece of historical revisionism makes the film’s lack of actual storytelling or plot poor at best or for the unknowing viewer unaware of the historical revisionism, a lazy attempt to smear, dismiss and mock a real human being at worst.
To return to our original question then, who is Marilyn Monroe and what lies beneath the facade? Unlike Blonde (2022) which conflates the two, despite the whole reason for the film existing was to understand the inner workings of a woman trying to separate and keep up both aspects of her double life, Marilyn was a complete alter-ego for the shy, introspective and prudish Norma Jeane, making the superfluous nudity in Blonde (2022) even more unjustified. Rather than Norma Jeane staring as Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953, dir. by Howard Hawks), it was Norma Jeane portraying Marilyn Monroe acting as Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The entire persona was cultivated and worked hard to maintain in every public outing. But, as the lines start blurring between a character archetype played by an actress with the actress herself, audiences tend to build intense para-social relationships as we believe that what we see is what we get. Thereby feeling like we know Monroe personally, even in death, and that we may have been able to save her from her fate somehow.
Nonetheless, acknowledging this still doesn’t remove the public outcry and undying cultural fascination with the ultimate ‘blonde’ bombshell. We still clamber for an apodeictic breakdown of her private life, especially as the list of those who actually knew Monroe becomes shorter and shorter with time and more creative liberties are taken to fill in the gaps of what we can’t verify. But perhaps, leaving the mystique surrounding Monroe unsolved is for the best? For better or for worse, as humans we’re drawn to and relish in this idea of hamartia, especially when it involves a social elite with their so-called ‘perfect’ lives being knocked down a peg or two. It makes what Amanda Konkle (2019, Some Kind of Mirror: Creating Marilyn Monroe) calls the “damaged famous” more endearing, more relatable, more attainable. Until our obsession with attempting to comprehend why
the Aphrodite of the 20th century, the American goddess of love… killed herself… what does that mean? - Dominik on his motivation for making the film
dissipates or at least slowly dissolves, Marilyn Monroe may never rest in peace.
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