It was September when Netflix’s highly anticipated ‘Blonde’, an American fictionalized biographical drama was released.
Based on life on the 2000 novel of the same name, the film is a fictionalized take on the life and career of American actress Marilyn Monroe.
Ana de Armas starrer movie despite being a highly anticip[ated movie with a budget of $22 million, is not everyone’s cup of tea.
P.S. This article is filled with spoilers!
Acting-wise, Ana de Armas was stunning and hypnotic even like Marilyn Monroe. If we talk about the timeline in which the story was based, the film’s shot is gorgeous, bringing all the glossy historical frames between the 1930s to 1960s. In short, everything seemed wonderful for the portrayal of Monroe which is utterly ugly!
The story of Norma Jeane Mortenson aka Marilyn Monroe is nothing but her being gaslit and talked down to. She is physically and sexually abused during the almost three-hours long movie.
There are points when it’s hard to differentiate between her dreaming and facing reality. If critics and viewers are calling ‘Blonde’ sexist, disturbing, and cruel, they are not wrong.
Blonde is a blend of everything disturbing, an abusive mother who abandoned Monroe as a child, her various sexual assaults in Hollywood, her threesome relationship with two men (one of them is Charlie Chaplin Junior) ends in them trying to blackmail her first husband.
Read more: Ana De Armas faces backlash as Marilyn Monroe in ‘Blonde’
Non-stop harassment, exploitation, and traumatization of Monroe. Her being summoned by JFK for sex and according to this film at least, has her abducted and forcibly aborts a child she’s carrying of his.
And on top of that, the way Monroe’s miscarriages are glorified are way too disturbing! After watching the abortion scenes, it would not be wrong to say that movies like ‘Blond are a tone-deaf reminder of why a female perspective should be included in a movie, or at least asked for, when writing about abortion.
In the year 2022, the movie Blonde is not just flawed but is also degrading, exploitative, and misogynistic.
