Blonde 

As long as men have existed they have preyed upon women, sought to oppress, control, manipulate, and use women. It’s repugnant.

Yes, Brooks deserves a film. But not a crap one. Something really special

Ditto for Ally Sheedy, who after Breakfast Club and Short Circuit had a genuine 'invite to the big leagues' but turned it down the instant she learned what said invite entailed. Contrast with Eva Green, who resisted Hollywood for roughly a decade due to full knowledge of what joining it would mean, but then went ahead anyway.

Fuck m8. Between Blonde and the Road, i would rewatch the Road. Be warned.

Thought provoking. Films used to be that.

This has to be one of the most eloquently put RU-vid comments I've ever read. It's refreshing to see people with more than a dozen brain cells perusing this website

​@@SpongeBobaFett the video and the whole comment section are refreshing.

I agree with a lot of the points made previously. I agree with becoming numb to the violence. If the intended effect was to crete empathy apathy was achieved. The idea to drive home the point that hollywood indeedly does exploit women, by exploiting one on screen seems like a really juvenile strategy at best. My personal biggest peeve with this film is that it tries to convey exploitation by exploiting this womans story trough the selective use of facts when it suits the films needs. And some film bros will say: "grow up this is what it is" or "dont hide the fact your IQ isnt high enough to get it, behind moralizing" or even worst of all: "she is dead while this problem is very much alive and well so it is permissible". Those arguments just reek of "to make great art everything goes." This is how you get a Kubrik for example traumatizing his actress, which while a different kind of exploitation is also very alive and well. And yes dead people can and are exploited for their name and recognition. I just dont see why it had to be about this real person in particular other than brand recognition. I think that a lot of the vitriol comes from this aspect.

@@Happytrooper6 - this gave me pause as well. Watching Blonde, I knew full-well that it was fiction built on scraps of reality - and I'm OK with that, generally. But I also had enough pre-existing knowledge of the historical figures shown here, and the context of their times, to pick many instances where the movie lies about them (and, usually, to understand the creative reasoning behind the lie, too). Not everyone will have that same context and, at the risk of sounding like a pompous snob, there'll always be uncritical viewers who just believe what they're shown to be true. While I'd be loathe to argue that storytellers should always play down to the hypothetical ignorance of That Idiot in the Crowd, it makes me wonder where that line of responsibility truly lays. Monroe herself isn't alive to be hurt by the film; her iconography is so ubiquitous already that I don't think it will be hurt by Blonde, either. The point of the movie is to juxtapose our collective image of Marilyn, a nostalgic-comedic-romantic-sexual fantasy (and a product designed, manufactured, and sold to us by rich white men for their own gain), against our denied collective knowledge of how she died. Whether this is truly deep or not is eye-of-the-beholder stuff. Ditto whether it's morally justifiable: if it's a tragedy that a real person named Norma Jean was crushed by the enormity of the invented Monroe persona (and the men who benefited from it), then is it right for the movie Blonde to do the same thing, and add outright untruths on top of that? Even if this perspective is born of compassionate empathy, genuinely attempting to "take her side" from an expressionistic point of view rather than a factual one? In a nutshell: Blonde does exploit the hell out of Monroe, but her iconography is big enough to stand it - no harm, no foul, I wanna say. But I also have to admit that's a flimsy moral defence. What annoyed me most was how much of the criticism came off as simplistic "no, a Monroe movie should be cute and fun," or "any movie that depicts exploitation is exploitation" toss, when (as you've shown) there's a much more nuanced debate to be had.

Apparently it scared a high number of men but not so many women. It’s a strange film. It’s a film that dares the audience to look away from the atrocities shown, to the point where the final shot refuses to end despite Marilyn being gone.

@@TheFlash-rh2el Huh? Tons of woman panned it too. Their criticism was that it was exploitative, especially when many of these things didn’t happen to her.

@@YourBlackLocal No, as I’m scared like a horror film should. Whereas a lot of female audience members didn’t hear the language and saw it as exploitative.

​​@@YourBlackLocal That's what my issue is with the film. It's just uncomfortable, like Dominic was getting off on seeing this icon getting tortured over and over. I get that her life was not glamorous and it needs to be known, but he didn't need to invent things that didn't happen. Her life was plenty full of pain on its own. To make stuff up just seems unfair, and tarnishes Monroe's life and memory. The film was supposed to fight back against the fictional image of Monroe and to stop exploiting her, but fails to do so because it does the exact same thing, just in the opposite extreme.

I thought it was just another disgusting commodificattion of a severely victimized person. I see it differently now.

Word. Cheers mate

Holy cheese two of my favourites

Also bush did fort Sumter, it's all in the papers OPEN YOUR EYES LINCOLNITE

What a lovely surprise you two are friends and both like Blonde too.

I'm all right with his career freezing completely.

@Aivottaja this new puritan crowd you're a part of that thinks representing something negative on screen is as bad as actually committing that act is wild. It's a mentality that's strangling the arts, people were filming more outré stuff in the 70s ffs.

@@iain2080 Cool story bro.

@@Aivottaja Helluva rebuttal.

Banning Mark Twain. Nuff said.

yes the egos initiial reaction to an honest mirror is often to dismiss or demonize the mirror. And much of humanity is guided purely by their ego

@@daltonbedore8396 100%

I show all my real self online, just as I do in “real life.” I do not curate a jolly, perfect online persona. I’ve never felt compelled to do that. In fact, I feel called to reveal as much of my suffering and adversities as I do my pleasure and triumphs.

Is that the one where the family goes on vacation but they leave the fetus at home and he has to fend off the burglars with traps?

M'ber the 'sperm race' scene in the beginning?

@@kennethc2466 I M'ber! I also m'ber my then 8 months pregnant aunt saying, "kill them, kill them all," at the CGI sperm.

That movie traumatized me when I realised John Travolta was up in the sky flying planes around. He actually has a pilots license.

@@kennethc2466 I was first the day I was conceived. Your ether first or your last.

Thats exactly why i wont watch it. I already avoid biopics like the plague because they are barely trying to tell a true story. Whyvtell a story about the exploitation of a woman, about the trauma it inflicts and tell it about Monroe without her side or even basic facts? Nah, glad Georg had a good time but this just Lampshading: The Movie.

Comment first, ask questions later?

HIGHLY recommend Caleb Gammans video on it. He had a great coverage piece on it from an incredibly underrated channel. Different approach than this video

It was pure anguish porn, save your time and happiness.

22:37

That sounds familiar, I’ll check it out. Thanks.

Expecting an audience to have some cognitive ability... What was he thinking?!

I still haven’t gotten through Blue Velvet. I’ll give it another shot as well. And thanks for the comment- give it another go. Cheers.

@@GeorgRockallSchmidt - I can't imagine bailing part way through Blue Velvet; what did it?

There's also a a fine line between looking at exploitation, and being exploitative. I'm not talking about Ana de Armas. Obviously, this is about Monroe - and about depictions of women in film in general. Personally, I was really disappointed in Dominik (having already struggled through Carol Oates's book some years ago). This felt out of date and less Blonde than blind. Times have changed. Dominik should stick to movies about blokes, if this is what he does with one about a woman. He's superb at films.... about blokes.

oh believe me, we're not shocked...

No, you are not comprehending that using this specific popular figure is the whole point of the film. It is about the fact that she is a popular figure and the very dark side of what this meant for her. And most of those things did happen, just not in the way they are shown, because they are shown through a sub-conscious and surrealistic lens. The film does not deny reality, it's exploring what's behind it.

Ive always found his 12 films for Christmas lists a good place for inspiration

Just make a playlist here on YT

Yeah, The Twelve Days is a good place for that. But you know what? This is a great idea for my Patreon. I’ll consider this.

What?

@@vladgina the movie Ghosted with Chris Evans and her, a recent dud according to what I've heard

He has a short video about it. Check it out!

It's already been made, unless they're doing a remake. Great, if slow, film.

@@eldorados_lost_searcher Robert Ford is the real one.

Yes! "By-opp-ick" = blech!

I only made it halfway, it’s not a ‘feel good’ film.

Surely we got the whole point after 15 minutes. No need to pontificate on it for 3 hours.

Fair comment

It’s NOT a biopic.

@@fredbloggs5902 I understand that. The problem is, the fictional elements aren't simply a speculative filling in of the blanks. Rather, they completely contradict facts which are known.

Not a biopic

Love you too

the film doesn't think, it's you thinking for it

Not sure what the film thinks of itself, but it's basically as good as films can get.