There is No Exploitation Like Show Exploitation

Marilyn Monroe has stood as a cultural cornerstone for decades and the world has long been enamored with her life. Blonde, a film about Monroe, premiered at the 79th International Venice Film Festival on Sept. 8, where it received a nomination for Best Film and a 14-minute long standing ovation, as reported by Variety. The movie displays the divide between Norma Jean Mortenson and her stage persona, Marilyn Monroe, by switching aspect ratios and replicating iconic photos of Monroe. The film directed by Andrew Dominik is based on a novel of the same name by Joyce Carol Oates. Although it is written as a biography of Mortenson’s life, Oates explained in the book’s copyright page that it does not intend to accurately depict Mortenson, but instead, uses the subject of Mortenson as a vessel for the idea of the 20th-century celebrity. 

Despite this disclaimer, many felt that the film blurred the lines between fact and fiction. An example of a false aspect of Mortenson’s life being presented as true is when her mother, Gladys, is shown as being physically and emotionally abusive toward her. Although Gladys was severely mentally ill and spent most of Mortenson’s life away in a mental hospital, there are no known reports of her physically abusing Mortenson. Similarly, a studio executive assaults Mortenson at the beginning of the film. There is little evidence to suggest this assault ever took place (Vanity Fair). This and the abuse from Gladys could be seen as a mockery of the real abuse Mortenson suffered during her life, such as her exploitation at a young age and the domestic violence she dealt with throughout her relationships (Collider). Freshman Kalli Kastner was confused about what parts of Blonde truly happened and which were made up. 

“I did not know much about Monroe going into the movie, but I was interested in knowing more about her life,” Kastner said. “After talking with some of my friends that knew more about her, I realized so much of the movie never actually happened. None of the promotion for Blonde made it obvious that this was a glamorized and false account of Mortenson’s life, not a true biopic. It seems like the people behind Blonde did not truly care about Mortenson’s life and just wanted to make a movie about a character. In which case, using Mortenson to tell this story is cruel because she was a real person who endured real trauma.”

Blonde was also criticized for not including Mortenson’s childhood in foster care, choosing instead to show unemotional neighbors drop off a seven-year-old Mortenson at an orphans’ asylum. It was also missing two true passions of Mortenson’s: her love of acting as an art form and the creation of her own production company which provided fair pay and creative freedom to all actors (Marie Claire). Throughout the film, it is implied that Mortenson only earned her fame in the industry due to the executive who assaulted her in exchange for a movie deal, therefore eradicating the real hard work and talent that led Mortenson to her success, angering viewers (Vanity Fair). One New York Times critic felt that the movie also includes excessive nudity and grossly hypersexualized Mortenson. Freshman Dhaniella Ancheta condemned how Blonde portrayed Mortenson.

“I do not think Blonde handled Mortenson’s legacy properly,” Ancheta said. “Since so much of the book it was based on is fiction, it feels wrong to assign these false stories to the real person that was Mortenson, especially considering the real trauma she faced. It seems like the world has viewed Mortenson as a purely sexual object for a long time, and the amount of nudity in the film reflects that. It is disappointing to see since the movie clearly wanted to show a different side of Mortenson but it still managed to show her in the same light as people have always perceived her.” 

The largest and most public controversy regarding Blonde was the pro-life messaging it contained. Although the movie included three instances of Mortenson’s abortions, there are no known accounts of her ever getting one (Vice). In the scene where Mortenson undergoes the first abortion, she decides to not go through with the procedure, just as the doctors are about to begin. The doctors then chase a distressed Mortenson around the hospital and eventually corner her. Mortenson is then forced to have the abortion despite her begging to not go through with it. This mirrors a false pro-life talking point that doctors force women to have abortions for their personal gain, and that abortions are considerably more traumatizing and painful than they truly are (National Public Radio). Before Mortenson has her second abortion, a computer-generated rendition of her unborn fetus is shown. The fetus begs her not to get the abortion in a scene that has been described as “mortifying and disturbing” by USA Today. Conversely, some viewers used Blonde as support of the pro-life stance, saying that Mortenson would have been better off and saved from her tragic death if she had only kept the babies and become a mother (USA Today). 

Despite Blonde’s inaccurate portrayal of Mortenson, there are other films and books that have handled her legacy with more sensitivity. Marilyn: Norma Jeane is a biography by Gloria Steinmen that covers the same topic of the separation between Monroe and Mortenson that Blonde attempted. This book was a driving force behind the shift in society’s perception of Monroe by showing her intelligence and kindness that the public was not widely aware of. My Week with a Marylin, a 2011 biographical movie, was acclaimed for its empathetic portrayal of Mortenson. Much like Steinmen’s biography, it displayed the many facets of Mortenson’s personality that made her who she was, something that Blonde was condemned for omitting (Variety). Freshman Allison Kumamoto agreed that Blonde should have focused on other parts of Mortenson’s life. “The creators of Blonde should have focused more on her career and her as a person and less on her dating life and relationships,” Kumamoto said. “Mortenson had such a unique life story and impact on the world. It is upsetting that a biopic about her which had so much attention drawn to it failed to accurately show who Mortenson was and fell back on old concepts of her.”