“Blonde” is cruel and misconceived
In the year 2000, author Joyce Carol Oates received criticism and praise for her controversial novel, “Blonde,” a semi-fictionalized portrait of Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe. It was announced that it would be getting a feature-length adaptation, with Ana de Armas playing Monroe and Andrew Dominik set to direct. The film was released to the public via Netflix in September 2022, and it began to stir up major controversy. The movie was being lauded as needlessly graphic, with some of the most brutal scenes in the film being mostly, if not entirely, made up. Not only do I agree with these criticisms, but I believe that this is one of the most exploitative and cruel films of the last decade.
To begin, I believe that part of what is so insidious about “Blonde” is that it truly believes it is a sensitive, feminist film, with the countless scenes of Monroe in tears after a harrowing scene of assault. If there were five words I would use to describe this movie, I don’t think “feminist” would crack the top 100. The five words I would use are: gross, spiteful, indulgent, hateful and vile.
Most of the scenes in “Blonde” consist of rape, drugs and violence. It’s ultimately disgusting how much the movie indulges these parts, with shots of sexual assault lingering in the frame for at least a minute. Full sequences of horrific domestic violence and unspeakably upsetting scenes of rape are littered throughout the movie, each one longer than the last. This tedious violence accomplishes nothing other than making me believe that the creatives involved were too careless to see how potentially damaging these moments might be to actual survivors. This is made even worse by the fact that most of these scenes are mostly, if not completely fabricated.
While the original novel was heavily marketed as a “semi-fiction,” it simply does not excuse making a showy Marylin Monroe fanfiction where she is repeatedly violated over and over again. It is an incredibly disrespectful move to a dead legend who cannot defend herself. The real-life Monroe almost definitely had her share of trauma, being chewed up and spit out by the Hollywood machine. Why should Oates and Dominik get the chance to hurt her more? There is also another element to the controversy that I did not expect, that being Ana De Armas’ involvement in the film. Not only did she star in the movie, but she heavily endorsed it and advocated in favor of its “feminist” message. It’s a genuinely sad thing to know that she publicized so much for the move, despite herself being an advocate for female rights.
Dominik is clearly a somewhat talented director. He knows how to frame a shot in an interesting way, he’s good with transitions and he knows how to work with actors, but this is shameful. Neither Dominik nor Oates should have ever touched Marilyn Monroe’s story, and it’s offensive that it has gotten this far.
