Beware of glitz of the limelight!

Blonde (2022)
Director: Andrew Dominic

Films are just that - Maya, all illusions. All of us are lured to the charm of Maya. Some lose time and focus on it. Others even lose their health, future and life in the celluloid make-believe world. The Mafia that controls Hollywood (or Bollywood, for that matter) has had its hands almost since its inception. The Mafia-controlled group of moviemakers and studio owners, Walt Disney included) dictated which stories the world should consume. They started controlling the narrative on what is deemed justice, what is evil and even what is morality.

The paymasters also micro-manage the lives of actors and actresses. They exert a monopoly over film production and distribution of movies by buying movie theatres. 

The private lives of movie players, as they were referred to in the early years of movies, were not confidential. In the early years, viewers were not keen to know about actors. It was the stories that mattered. They were the domain of these very same people. They decided who should remain in the minds of the gullible public and who is sellable. They send paparazzi to eateries they arranged to create a buzz when there were none. 

Many actors were married off to boost their careers, not because of love. Ironically, the whole dream of films is based on love, but they mock the entire thing. Some were even caught in sham marriages when the actors were gay.

So it is unsurprising that Hollywood absorbed a mentally unstable person like Marilyn Monroe to build a dreamgirl persona around her. At least, this is what this new film about Monroe seems to propagate.

With the liberty of licence of creativity, the filmmakers have made Marilyn not only a dumb blonde but a highly mentally unstable prima donna with a drug problem at that. In most scenes, a dazed Marilyn sails through life under the influence of booze or barbiturates. 

Brought up by a single schizophrenic mother, Norma Jean Mortenson is seen to be exposed to many life-threatening situations. Her mother tried to drown her once. During a raging forest fire, her mother is seen driving towards the fire in search of a non-existent Marilyn's father.

The 7-Year Itch

Marilyn was cared for by her mother's friend but later went into foster care when child sexual molestation was discovered. At 16, she got into a marriage which ended disastrously fast. Throughout her childhood, Marilyn was fed with the idea that her father was a wealthy movie star whose identity could not be revealed for some reason. Her fixation with wanting to connect with her father continues to adulthood. She marries much older men and calls them daddy in search of a father figure she never had.

As an adult, Marilyn knows she is the product of an unwanted pregnancy from an affair. The thought that she may have been aborted even before birth haunts her. During her own multiple induced abortion and an inevitable miscarriage, she hallucinates being in communication with her fetuses. We are made aware that her agents arranged her many terminations of pregnancy. 

To drive home the idea that this whole movie is mainly a figment of the author's imagination is the account of a pervasive sexual threesome between Marilyn and the sons of Charlie Chaplin and Edward G Robinson. In real life, they may just have been passing acquaintances. For the record, there were no such exposê in the tabloids. Neither sons of these dozens were reported to be homosexuals. 

We all know about Marilyn's rendition of the 'Happy Birthday, Mr President' song to JFK. They were rumoured to be engaged in a raunchy prolonged love affair, which resulted in an unwanted pregnancy. Here, it is depicted like a doe-eyed call girl - tyrannical master dynamics. Critics of this movie were quick to point this out amongst the bent truths in this movie.

In all accounts, this NC-17 certificate offering is nothing more than eye candy bordering on pornography. There are way too many scenes involving full nudity than the storyline demands. An emotional outpour will drive home the sadness irrespective of whether the player is fully attired or is the full monty. 

Being a Netflix film, I wonder how consumers will enforce the NC-17 rule. Perhaps, the wokes who determine what is suitable for human entertainment consumption assume That watching porn is wholesome family entertainment. Thumbs down 👎

The movie probably painted Marilyn Monroe in a terrible light. She is portrayed as an immature girl with severe developmental issues going through life on a leash, looking for love and compassion in all the wrong places, muttering 'daddy, daddy...!' Her achievements are unfortunately lost in translation.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.