After Blonde was panned as an exploitative and shallow pseudo-portrayal of Marilyn Monroe, director Andrew Dominik boldly reasserted that he truly doesn't understand what he did wrong. Speaking at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Saudi Arabia, Dominik called the allegations that he exploited Monroe "strange, because she's dead." Blonde was heavily criticized for its graphic depictions of rape and sexual assault, including a forced abortion, scenes that also earned it a rare NC-17 rating. The movie is absolutely exploitative of both Monroe and her legacy, and Dominik's continued refusal to it to the film's flaws demonstrates his own lack of comprehension surrounding Monroe's life.
Although it used Marilyn Monroe's likeness, career, and personal details, Blonde included many fictionalized plot points. While the movie depicts two rapes, there's no evidence Monroe was ever assaulted this way by a studio executive or by John F. Kennedy. Furthermore, Blonde portrays Marilyn Monroe as pregnant at multiple points, but there is no evidence that she ever had an abortion. These details seem to be included in the movie to further victimize and exploit Monroe.
Why Blonde Does Exploit Marilyn Monroe
Andrew Dominik has defended Blonde against allegations of exploitation, but he has never done so convincingly. For instance, asserting that Blonde is not exploitative because “the movie doesn’t make a difference one way or another” since Marilyn Monroe is dead is, ittedly, an intriguing defense only in the sense that many would hope that their art would have some impact on its audience, but it's illogical. Of course, a person can be denigrated after death, as has been proven for decades since Monroe's death.
Monroe has been derided as a stereotypical ditzy blonde, her sex life has been dissected, and her acting talent has been eclipsed by her sexual appeal. Monroe's tragic, untimely death has been the subject of years' worth of conspiracy theories. Dominik fails to acknowledge this character assassination and actively chooses to compound it throughout Blonde. When its portrayal of abortion and a bizarre scene with a CGI fetus talking to Monroe were labeled overtly anti-abortion, Dominik responded, "It's got nothing to do with that. It's about what Norma's feelings are about it." This sidestep is almost compelling, except Monroe had no feelings about the abortion since it never happened.
Dominik has attempted to reroute critics toward what Monroe herself would have thought of the events of the movie, an inherently flawed notion since the majority of the most horrifying scenes in Blonde never happened — at least not to Monroe. Particularly for a figure like Monroe, who was so profoundly abused and exploited during her lifetime, there is nothing artistic or virtuous about further propagating and reinventing this exploitation. Dominik's callous response to the backlash indicates that even if he knew that Blonde was exploitative, he just didn't care.
How Blonde Fails To Subvert Its Own Misogyny
One of Blonde's greatest tragedies was that Andrew Dominik could have portrayed Marilyn Monroe as society has come to understand her: a woman, brilliant in her craft and fierce in her autonomy who fought valiantly against the obstacles that did, and still do, face women in the entertainment industry. Dominik could have meditated on the ways in which his own industry failed Monroe; instead, he became her latest ab. Blonde had the opportunity to comment on the misogyny with which Monroe contended, but instead, it found more ways to victimize and objectify Monroe, depersonalizing her to the extent that the character in no way resembled the woman.
The graphic scenes that earned Blonde an NC-17 rating perfectly embody this misogyny. Dominik reduced Monroe to a sexual object, defined only by the abuses she suffered at the whims of powerful men: the studio executive who raped her for the first time; the doctors who performed a forced abortion; the athlete who beat her; the president who raped her once more. Dominik’s comments have also illustrated his own dearth of knowledge regarding Monroe, whom he accused contemporary audiences of trying to “reimagine as an empowered woman.” The assertion that Monroe needed to be “reimagined” as empowered is not only insulting but also demonstrably untrue.
Monroe advocated for civil rights and started her own production company; she was highly intelligent and deeply analytical; she was involved in efforts aimed at nuclear disarmament and rallied against McCarthyism. Blonde's divisive reviews don't even typically focus on the version of Monroe who was more than an actress and model. Whether Dominik doesn’t consider these details empowering or is simply unaware of their veracity shouldn’t belay the point that Blonde’s director still seems to have little understanding of his own subject’s compelling life. In this sense, of course, Dominik couldn't understand why Blonde is so exploitative; he truly does not know the woman behind his own movie.
