Netflix has officially released its first original movie with an NC-17 rating. “Blonde” is a biopic of Marilyn Monroe’s life featuring Ana De Armas, directed by Andrew Dominik. When the film was announced, fans were excited to see if this movie would finally give Monroe the respect she deserved.
The film depicts Monroe’s life, starting at a young age when she lived with her mother up until her tragic death at age 36. It covers everything from her childhood, career, romantic relationships and mental health struggles. After the movie’s release, it was safe to say that it did not do Monroe justice and was disrespectful, to say the least.
Let’s start with probably the only good thing about the movie — Ana De Armas. She is most known for her role in “Knives Out” and viewers were excited to see her in this new role. Given the direction Dominik wanted for Monroe, De Armas performed to the best of her ability and did an exceptional job.
While watching, you can feel the emotions of Monroe’s struggles and can’t help but feel for her. De Armas’ performance was the best part of this entire film.
Now the rest of the film was horrible and hard to watch. At nearly three hours in length, almost half of it was Monroe topless for no apparent reason. Considering Monroe was always seen as a pretty face with a nice body in the eyes of this male-dominated industry, the film just encourages that view of her instead of who she was.
In the film, Monroe only interacted with men besides her mother. You can see in these relationships and interactions that Monroe is being taken advantage of and abused. Still, Dominik portrays it as her fault, and victim blames her the entire time.
One of the scenes in the film is with President Kennedy and the rumored relationship between him and Monroe. While their relationship was never officially confirmed, the film goes right ahead, including a scene where Monroe engages in a sexual act with Kennedy. It was honestly disconcerting and went on way too long. The scene was 100% unnecessary, and many viewers have come out publicly, stating their discomfort and anger.
The most disturbing part of the film was when Monroe becomes pregnant, and a talking fetus is shown on screen — it was just such a weird scene and idea to incorporate and overall, just not necessary. It wasn’t even an accurate depiction of a fetus, given the amount of time Monroe had been pregnant.
Both times Monroe was pregnant and the fully formed fetus showed up, her stomach was completely flat and obviously nowhere near having a fully formed fetus inside of her. When the fetus talked to her, it made comments about her first child that she had gotten aborted. All of the scenes regarding Monroe and her pregnancies were extremely anti-pro-choice and caused much anger after the release.
“Blonde” is a very disrespectful depiction of Monroe’s life and emphasized the worst parts of her life as being her fault. Monroe will only get the accurate portrayal she deserves when that movie is directed by a woman and not a man in the same industry that took advantage of her in the first place.
Overall Rating: 4/10
Mary Claire Phelps is a staff writer.
.
Commentaires
Enregistrer un commentaire