Netflix's 'Blonde' exploits, not exhaults, Marilyn Monroe

Content warning: This review mentions sexual assault and abuse.

The best part about the new Netflix movie “Blonde” was when I finished watching it. Or rather, when I decided to turn it off to save what was left of my mental health after enduring it for 2 hours.

“Blonde,” a film based on the novel of the same name by Joyce Carol Oates, tells the story of Marilyn Monroe’s rise and fall in the film industry, from her fraught childhood to an even more arduous adulthood.

Monroe is played by Ana de Armas, a 34-year-old Cuban actress who, before her remarkable work in this film, had yet to distinguish herself as a top player in Hollywood.

But de Armas’ breakout performance was the only thing Andrew Dominik, the 55-year-old director, seemed to get right about this film.

“Blonde” is an offensive, harmful, soulless film about a woman who is anything but, and its inception begs the question: What the f*ck is still going wrong in Hollywood that someone would greenlight this film?

The movie begins with a peek into Monroe’s distressing childhood. We are introduced to Monroe’s mother who is an abusive, mentally ill woman obsessed with her ex. Monroe’s mother constantly blames the young girl for her father’s disappearance, makes her sleep in a dresser drawer and tries to drown her in a scalding bathtub. Monroe narrowly escapes her house of horrors only to be dropped off at an orphanage by her apathetic neighbors.

The opening sequence is brutal, pulling at every audience member’s heartstrings as we watch a little girl be abused by the one person who is supposed to protect her. But what is more upsetting than the storyline is the problematic decision to have a girl no older than 6 years old running around naked for most of the scene.

This choice was not necessary to the plot and, judging by the rest of the film, exploitative in nature. As Blake Lively has emphasized in her talks about stopping child pornography, it’s time we start thinking about and protecting these kids who have no power over themselves in this industry.

The next chunk of the film chronicles Monroe’s rise to fame as a model, movie star and eventual tabloid darling.

Throughout the film, Monroe maintains her birth name Norma Jeane with her loved ones to try to separate her true identity and celebrity persona, yet the lines become blurred as both Monroe and Norma Jeane are abused by men who refuse to see either identity or recognize Monroe as a human being at all.

During Monroe’s first meeting with Mr. Z, the then-head of 20th Century Fox, he immediately rapes her. Monroe then begins a sexual three-way relationship with both Charles “Cass” Chaplin Jr. and Edward "Eddy" G. Robinson Jr. The throuple is even shown having sex at Monroe’s big movie premiere in front of the whole audience.

While there are many problems with the events above, my biggest problem with them is that they are not proven to be true. Why add so many overtly sexual storylines if they are based solely on rumor? It's clear exploitation of Monroe and gives into the misogyny she faced during her life.

Not to mention, during the sex scenes with Chaplin and Robinson, the camera only showed Monroe’s nakedness and face, making the director’s vile decision-making clear.

The most adverse narrative in “Blonde” begins during the same time as Monroe’s relationship with the two men and approximately 1 hour into the film.

Monroe finds out she is pregnant and is overjoyed to have the baby and raise it with her partners. Monroe tells her mother the news while she is laying in a bathtub (why are the women always naked?) in an old-school mental institution. Monroe flashes back to her abusive childhood and immediately calls to schedule an abortion.

The scene to follow is abhorrent, especially considering the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade and the fight to codify dependent on the November election.

Monroe goes in to have the procedure, and the camera pans to a third-trimester size baby in utero. Monroe cannot be more than three months pregnant at the time of the abortion, so showing a full-size newborn is a lie and a lie like that, in this America, is nothing short of dangerous.

When the camera pans back to Monroe on the hospital bed, she is fighting and saying she changed her mind but is ignored by the nurses and sedated by the sadistic-looking doctor. This is anti-abortion propaganda and should never have been aired on Netflix.

The final part of “Blonde” follows Monroe’s marriages to Yankee legend Joe DiMaggio and then playwright Arthur Miller.

Monroe married DiMaggio in 1954 and was set up with him by her industry team. He is at first chivalrous and kind, picking up the pieces after her traumatic abortion, but ends up both physically and verbally abusing her under the pretense of her promiscuity.

The distressingly graphic scenes of DiMaggio beating her with his belt and listening to multiple minutes of her cry for help aren’t even the most problematic part of these scenes. Rather, Monroe’s persistence in calling both of her husbands “daddy” takes the cake. 

During the entirety of the film, an underlying theme is Monroe’s correspondence with her father. Early in her career, she receives a letter from a man saying he is her father, and they keep up a rapport as she strives to show her father the real her, Norma Jeane. 

Monroe not being raised by her father somehow translated in Dominik’s mind as a perpetual quest for a father figure in her sexual relationships.

It's creepy, disgusting and pornographic. It reveals more of a fetish on the director’s part than anything believable of Monroe. This choice dehumanizes Monroe by painting her as a single-cell organism with one goal of finding a “daddy.” Not to mention, this film makes her say it in a sexual context when she is on the floor naked begging a clothed DiMaggio not to hit her again, which is unnecessary and perverted on the entire production team’s part.

I made the choice to finally shut off this film when Marilyn was pregnant again, during her marriage to Miller, and the camera again panned to the misleading fetus.

“Blonde” fails at serializing the life of Marilyn Monroe. It sexualizes Monroe disproportionately to her male counterparts. It is unnecessarily graphic and mishandles sensitive topics like mental illness, domestic abuse and abortion.

Do yourself a favor and skip this one. Even better, write a letter to Netflix or an Instagram story public service announcement as to why “Blonde” not only misses the mark but also exploits a woman who deserves to be remembered with dignity, respect and love.