When the Netflix production “Blond” appears on the streaming service on September 28th, the controversy about the film that has accumulated beforehand is likely to increase, especially among fans of the main character. For some, the nearly three-hour flick about the tragic life of Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962) might at first glance give the impression of a thoroughbred biopic. However, like his novel of the same name by Joyce Carol Oates (84), it is a mixture of fact and plenty of fiction. And she made it to the first “18+” stamp of an in-house Netflix film.
“Blond” tells the story of a deeply traumatized girl who grows up into a deeply traumatized woman: Norma Jeane Mortenson, later Baker, played by Ana der Armas (34). As the daughter of a mentally unstable mother, she is pushed back and forth between nursing homes and foster families. But while she longs for love and security, sexual abuse by older men becomes her constant companion.
That doesn’t change when Baker conquers Hollywood with her fictional character Marilyn Monroe. In front of the camera she is the sex idol, the superstar. Away from the dream factory, she tries to fill the void left by a father she never saw – and ends up in one toxic relationship after another.
The film by Andrew Dominik (54) is staged based on the 1,000-page book by Oates. In other words, he mixes real stations and incidents in the life of Marilyn Monroe with circulating rumors and flawless fiction, without differentiating between them. It is the explicit, unsparing and disturbing sex and rape scenes that ensure the highest of all age ratings outside of the prudish USA.
To show how controversial “blonde” sometimes turns out, various media pick out a scene. In it, Monroe is raped by US President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963). So from the man with whom she was said to be having an affair and to whom she breathed “Happy Birthday, Mister President” in 1962.
Anyone who expects “Blond” to be a romanticized form of a biopic of the “Bohemian Rhapsody” brand – who doesn’t keep it strictly to reality himself – will not only be disappointed, but downright appalled by Dominik’s film. Where other strips use artistic freedom to embellish, to glorify, “Blond” takes the opposite path.
