Blonde Online

Not a bad biopic - though, not being a fanatic, I can't vouch for the accuracy. Although long (over 3 hours) time passed quickly - borne along by the appealing performance of Poppy Montgomery as MM.

I've never see her before, but will look out for her in the future after this convincing performance. Interestingly, her portrayal of the younger Norma Jean seemed to better capture the essence of Marilyn's fragile appeal than the later scenes when she became "Marilyn".

As for the production itself, the script was effective (if a bit tame) and the inhumanity of the Hollywood Machine was well portrayed. The supporting cast gave workmanlike performances too - but with Poppy on screen in almost every scene, who's going to waste time looking at them?!!

This was the most insightful account of Marilyn Monroe's life I have seen. With a novelist's intuition, Joyce Carol Oates has focused on MM's emotional neediness as the key to her character and the film faithfully reproduces this. Her mother won't tell her who her father is, and all her relationships with men are proxies for this lost part of who she is. It is no accident that she calls both Joe Di Maggio and Arthur Miller "Daddy". Poppy Montgomery does a stunning job in the most difficult part any actress could be called upon to play - reproducing what was basically a unique persona. I thoroughly recommend this film.

In Australia Blonde was shown on TV as a movie on a single night and therefore cut back from 4 to 3 hours - this condensation of the story may have helped it's impact.

I am a person very much intrigued by the great Marilyn Monroe.I have seen her at her best and at her worst and like most people know about her life,her demons and her dreams.Considering we know all this,this movie seems to offer us nothing new.It fails to create the glamour of the golden years of Hollywood,it fails to portray the kind of Marilyn the world didn't know and worse yet the movie consists of more fiction than fact,and when one sits down to watch a movie portraying the life of one of Hollywood's greatest that can get pretty annoying(especially if one has to ask the person sitting next to you,"Did that really happen?")This is the first movie I have watched on Monroe's life and I awaited it with great anticipation.....but I was very disappointed.

Apart from Poppy Montgomery's good performance,the rest was unimpressive.The movie also left me thinking "Surely being Marilyn Monroe would not have been all that bad?"

I'm a BIG Marilyn Monroe fan! So When Joyce Carol Oates' book Blonde came out I thought that it was something very special! It truly was an amazing book, that not every writer working today can write. Joyce Carol Oates did a great job, even if it was or wasn't what Marilyn/Norma Jean really was thinking.

However this mini-series (even though it is 4 hours long) it very watered down and due to the fact that it is on CBS and a lot of the graphic content in the book, which was very effective, would never air on CBS. I truly believe that "Blonde" would have been MUCH better had it aired on HBO or Showtime. I don't mean they should have turned it into softcore porn, but as someone before said "This is a G rated version of a R rated life". It just was not as effective as the book.

The only thing the mini-series had going for it was Poppy Montgomery, who I think should have gotten an Emmy for her work as Marilyn/Norma Jean! No other actress has done Marilyn as much justice as Poppy did and it is a real shame that she didn't have better material to work with, but she does her very best! The rest of the cast gives good performances.

I really hope this gets released on DVD soon!!!!!!

Overall, the book was better, but it is still worth a watch for Poppy's AMAZING performance as Marilyn!!!

Great, Great Docudrama. Fantastic. Poppy Montgomery was great for the part of the troubled Marilyn Monroe. So was the whole cast. Ann-Margaret, Patrick Dempsey, and so many more fantastic actresses and actors took the stage in this great drama of a legend.

The intention of this film was not to be a bio-pic. It's not a chronology of her life like the many other Marilyn films. The purpose of this film was to do a psychological study of this woman and her life. I thought it was exceptional concept and very well executed. It was a refreshing derivative from the trite superficial Marilyn bio-pics that are too numerous to mention. If you want to understand the real human being beneath the celluloid and make-up...this is the one to watch.

I was going to blast this movie as completely garbage when I read some of the other reviews here---one in particular that said plainly and clearly that the viewer must remember that this is a work of pure fiction. On that basis, the movie has its good points. But fiction or not, the real characters in Marilyn Monroe's life are still portrayed here and not thinly disguised either. I often think a good movie is one that makes you think about it and stays with you after the ending. This is what happened to me, so I changed my mind about how I feel about it. I have been thinking about Blonde (a dull and unimaginative title---why the writers did not come up with something less lame is foremost in my mind) and have come to the conclusion that it does have merits. The actress, Poppy Montgomery, I never heard of her, but that is beside the point, does resemble Marilyn in some shots while in others, you are looking at a bad costume job. The wigs in this movie were horrible and so stiff and completely absurd in some shots. It was pleasant to hear the real Marilyn sing Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend, but Montgomery was no dancer and the dubbing was inconsistent. Still I praise her performance. She portrays the vulnerability that Marilyn had, but she does not give off any backbone--or maybe that is the point. I do not know if that was her intention to portray Marilyn as weak. Maybe her weakness helped destroy her. I do not know. I do recommend this movie, but with the warning that it is fiction. I never read the book and have no desire to. I have read many biographies of Monroe, so if you are looking for the real life story of Marilyn, this is not the place to start.

This movie gives us Marilyn Monroe's life in the series of events that are most famous to US - the audience. They mimic many moments that we should know (like "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend," MM walking out of City Hall after marrying Arthur Miller, MM singing to JFK). Why? To keep us entertained by showing us just HOW much Poppy Montgomery looks like the wondrous Marilyn Monroe. And...she does. Poppy succeeded in this role because she wasn't intimidated by the part...and I read somewhere that she was always obsessed with Monroe, so that probably helped.

This bio is definitely not bad. It has moments of pure brilliance. One of the last scenes, where Marilyn is on the ferris wheel & she runs away from the carnival barefoot to the dark road - it was one of the most fascinating, ingenious scenes in the entire movie. ALSO, I was surprised by the kink-factor of this CBS television mini-series. Now, MM on the beach having a threesome with the insinuations of oral sex...it definitely added an unexpected element to the film. But it shouldn't surprise us, since her business WAS sex. That trait payed her bills.

"Blonde," by the end, portrayed MM as a rent-a-kitten. DiMaggio got her for a while. Then Arthur Miller had his turn. Did all these people just want ownership rights to her like she was some convenient muse that they couldn't exist without but ended up unable to exist with? This I don't understand. Was it all about her genetically impossible, intimidating high standard of beauty? A form of self-sabotage? Her life seems impossible, which can only mean she had some form of depression or paranoia (inherited from her mother). The film shows this well in the end. She was crazy. Normal people just don't live that way. That's why she is so untouchable and fascinating to us still - because we can't make any sense of her. She's a complicated, perplexing, confusingly self-denying girl that we can't get out of our heads. If only we could FIX her, we think. If only we put that missing puzzle piece in, then she'd be all right. Then we could have peace of mind.

So, was this only an act? Marilyn was smart...did she know this affect she had on people? Were WE her toys instead of vice versa? It would be a conspiracy, but I believe Marilyn Monroe was an extremely strong person that made fools of us all. If in fact she enjoyed any of it, then this was her strange fetish: to always play the role of the little girl. Her forever game of pretend.

Poppy Montgomery did a great job as Marilyn. The one thing she lacked, though, is MM's silent intelligence. But otherwise, it's very obvious Montgomery worked hard and did the part with a respectful devotion to Monroe...and it succeeded. And, I also believe, the character of Monroe must be a very pleasurable role to portray...so don't tell me that Marilyn Monroe herself didn't enjoy being in her own skin. I think she liked it more than we've led ourselves to believe.

The book Blonde was meant to be a FICTIONAL study of Marilyn Monroe's life. To other commentators: do not get hyped up over this movie being untrue. If you read the first few pages of the book; Joyce Carol Oates (the author) says that this is a PURELY FICTIONAL book and that if one wishes to know facts about Marilyn, they should consult biographical sources. This movie should not be taken so literally! It is simply an imagining by one woman about the mentality of a legend. I think it is a beautiful, fascinating film. Wonderful acting and far more interesting than any of the previous films. If you want a real story, do not consult this film as the author of Blonde herself says it is not Fact just pure imagining Fiction. If you focus on the overall,universal themes of this movie/novel you will see that it applies to every woman in our society at some time or another. That is why this book was written. It is about the vulnerability we all have and how we can be taken advantage of. It is about the destructive machine that was the 1950s "studio". Great work.

Can anyone just take someones life nowdays and turn it into a complete tale of falsehoods and farce? Just because that persons happens to be dead is no excuse. This film about the life of Norma Jean Baker/Marilyn Monroe is a complete and utter travesty, barely any characters in this film are real. Some are based on true characters such as the photographer who discovered Marilyn however the names have been changed, what is the point of making a biography if you change the names, if one cannot obtain consent from those involved then those involved obviously thought the film to be untrue to the person and didnt wish to be a part of it. Poorly scripted with a plot that jumps all over the place with no real concern as to dates and the like. The only saving grace is that Poppy Montgomery has a few moments, but not nearly enough to save this utter failure of a film. For those of you who know something about the life of Marilyn Monroe steer clear for there are healthier ways to work up your anger and for those not so informed on the actress then please read a book for you will be assured at least a few facts, unfortunatly there are none contained here. How many worthless telemovies will they make to pick at the final remaining dignities of this woman?

I understand the frustration and confusion of people watching this version of Marilyn's life,especially those who didn't read the book or understand that this was a piece of fiction. Joyce Carol Oates took a lot of liberties IMAGINING what Marilyn went through and felt at various points in her life and came up with this amazing empathic story. She tried to fill in the flesh and blood around the bones of the fascinating, complicated and controversial story of the life of Marilyn Monroe. As people have said, she is commenting on how women are used, how in particular sexy women are used or abused in our society, and how a beautiful, resourceful, and creative but damaged woman tried to battle the men, the system,and her demons to survive.

I had never seen Ms. Montgomery or Ms. Richardson's work but watched this a long time ago with two friends who are psychologists. We were all very impressed with both performances. My friends said that Ms. Richardson's performance was a perfect depiction of a bipolar and borderline personality. I started watching her later on re-runs of Home Improvement and can only think that the people who don't like her performance were shocked by the difference in the characters. We found her work chilling in this , she was very scary and sad as well, as my friends say these people are. I think this actress is superb. They thought Marilyn appeared to be more full of personality defects and the possible victim of childhood sexual abuse, not psychotic like her mother. They said that everything these days has to do with attachment disorder, it's not so Freudian. Since she was abandoned by her father, and also by her mother when her mother was so sick, she would have had these attachment and abandonment issues as well as the sexual abuse issues, as she was reputedly raped or attacked at one of her foster homes. I believe that was in the book but I'm not sure that is fact.

One of the interesting things they told me was that it tends to be the brilliant people who survive and prevail when they have had this kind of terrible childhood and it is clear in Ms. Oates book that Marilyn was very bright and creative. She knew what her weaknesses were, and what her strengths were and she knew how to survive. Having suffered through out of control people, ( her mother ), she wouldn't have been able to put up with the temper that Joe Dimaggio supposedly had or his controlling nature . She wouldn't put herself in the position her mother had been in,get married and be a traditional wife with a baby and risk being left behind. This would explain her leaving the first two marriages. Then she sought a father figure in Arthur Miller who was yet another controlling figure. It's hard to have a good sexual relationship with a father figure. Also, did she know he was writing about her?

I thought Poppy Montgomery was surprisingly good and gave a very intelligent and moving performance. She gave the essence of the character which is what you want to see. There was real hunger and hurt in her eyes that was startling. There were TV movie like aspects to this film because various characters would pop up and then disappear again and few characters were realized as fully as the title star, but I liked the first three women, Ann Margeret and Ms. Richardson and Ms. Montgomery quite a bit. And I and my friends enjoyed and found the movie to be very interesting and visually beautiful . We also liked the soundtrack, the music very much.

I was surprised to see this on Lifetime yesterday since it fancies itself the champion of women. Granted, this is fiction, but there's nothing positive in this image of Marilyn Monroe. It's disheartening that über-feminist Oates re-imagines her as the dumbest whore in Christendom. That said, I was taken with Poppy Montgomery. There are moments you sense she could have really hit it out of the park if she had a decent script!

Blonde gives you no idea of Monroe's brilliant career or what drove her. Hearing her scream at the Joe DiMaggio stand-in that her work is her life made me laugh, as her "work" consists of "auditioning" for every studio exec in town (and Richard Widmark's heirs ought to sue for the totally fictional scene of Marilyn "auditioning" for him)!

If Marilyn Monroe actually was a no-talent bimbo, I wouldn't be writing this, and Oates wouldn't be tripping all the way to the bank!

I read Marilyn Monroe's biography when I was 20.

Her life is so dramatic and she is very humane, intelligent, artistic and sensitive,susceptible.Her pain and dream, eagerness for life, family, love,,, all of things touched my mind.

She is full of contradiction, and so many faces,,, her image betrays her inner self-like many others actually,,,but She exposed other people's eyes, always center of rumor.

This film is better than "Norma Jean& Marilyn' . That was boring. Ashley Judd, Mira Sorvino can't express effectively Marilyn's character. Poppy Montgomery reflects Maryilyn's more humane side, her loneliness and sensibility more persuasive.

This film's strong point is well describing her childhood. Her childhood formed, explained her later life. But her adult life, so many things abbreviated. And Marilyn is described as just very weak, nervous breakdown person. I'm sorry about that. I think She always struggled, made effort to overcome her obstacle. She is nervous but at the same time, very strong.

Anyhow this movie is a catalyzed of memory. I remind of her once again.

I read all the reviews on the the Marilyn Monroe movie, Blonde. I can tell she's your favorite so your naturally partial to her and will stick up for her. But come on, if it walks like a duck, acts like a duck, its a duck. A lot of women didn't cheapen themselves to make it. Oh, you want to say, she couldn't help it if she was sexy and beautiful, that has nothing to do with it, a lot of women are but they don't become whores. There's a time and place for everything. If she was a decent woman, she wouldn't of slept around with married men, who just wanted her for one thing and when they found out she wasn't all they thought, they wanted out. She ruined her own life. Being a sex symbol is an art. I don't think so. Anyone can shake their hips, take photos in the nude, talk sexy, walk sexy. She was low in life because she had to know she was being used and she let herself be used. You are what you attract. What's good about being a sex symbol? What woman in their right mind wants to be known as just a sex symbol who know how to turn on the men and just there to cater them and she was that wasn't she. She added something to classic movies and I give her that but I don't make allowances for someone just because their a big star or legend. Would you want to be someone's friend who was promisicous? Do you deal with promisicous women on the street? no I'm sure most of you don't but if their a big star you make excuses for their wrongs. Being an artist is not being sexy and being good in bed. Marilyn Monroe isn't so hard to understand. She's not complex. She was just a woman who wasn't raised right, wasn't taught right from wrong so how could she know what was right or wrong. She lived life the only way she knew how. She slept around to gain love but that don't work. It should be give and earn love then sex.

I saw this movie, and i thought it was as pretty accurate as it could be. It was certainly more accurate than Norma Jean and Marilyn, and all the other biopics of Marilyn Monroe. Norma Jean and Marilyn have a ton of errors. Marilyn didn't die in the bathroom, and the scene set in New York is totally wrong, it was combined with what happened in New York and what happened when they footage from New York had to be re-shot. Because of the whole crowd deal and stuff. The whole thing about her dress was totally incorrect, she didn't do anything like that, she was however tightly in the dress.

I only however got to see the first part and don't know how the second part went. But i bet it was pretty close and accurate.

9/10

I'm curious, if you have never even seen a movie of hers, then how should any of us take your vicious, ignorant and crass remarks about an obvious cinematic icon and real-life goddess seriously? Especially when we know they are based merely on the tripe that was aired as "Blonde." If you can't see the true beauty and talent of MM, regardless of whether you've never seen one of her movies, then you must be blind. In response to your own malicious and obviously jealous/envious remarks, let me correct you.

First, Joyce Eliason and Joyce Chopra should be flayed to ribbons for their promulgation of a pack of lies--Eliason for untalented and uninspired gossip-rag writing and Chopra for bad direction. I haven't read Oates' book so I won't critique her, but needless to say if Eliason's teleplay is based on it then I've already said what I think of the writing. And, if you are basing your opinion of MM's acting talent on Poppy Montgomery's (PM) horrible portrayal of her, then you are obviously not very bright. PM who doesn't and didn't look anything like MM (blond hair does not an MM make), couldn't act her way out of a paper bag. By the way, whose misguided decision was that?

Second, there are so many falsehoods and discrepancies in that movie that it should be discounted as total lie from the onset--so many in fact that I don't even know where to begin. For example, Marilyn did not call all of her husbands Daddy, only the first one James Dougherty) because she was trapped into an arranged marriage at the age of sixteen to get rid of her. Another, no one who ever worked with her has ever alluded to her being a bitch. They in fact talk, no, gush about how talented she was and how funny she was, not to mention how naturally beautiful she was. They even say that she and working with her was like "magic". For the uninformed, see "Some Like it Hot" and then watch the extras with the cast at the end. You hear what is essentially the truth from Tony Curtis (except for his self-promoting remarks regarding his posterior in comparison to hers) and the other actors.

Third, if she was as the writer and director claim, such an awful person then why did so many men and dare I say it, so many women want her so badly? And how do you know she was good in bed? Because of the lurid lies in `Blonde'? MM was not promiscuous. She married for love (except for the first one), and I have never ever heard of her engaging in group sex, and certainly not in public. MM was an old-fashioned girl who wanted a husband and family that loved and accepted her totally, so she could have the kind of stable home life she didn't have as a child. She was almost raped as a child, and was used as a sort of sex kitten by everyone she encountered in Hollywood. Was it her fault that she was so sexy, adorable, or beautiful? No. Worse yet, she was smart.

Another point, it wasn't that DiMaggio couldn't live with her, she couldn't live with him. He expected her to give up her career and be a stay-at-home wife. As for Miller, he couldn't handle her emotional sensitivity because he was at times so closed off himself and so self-controlling (one could almost say emotionally repressed). So, who couldn't live with whom? A final note, if DiMaggio couldn't live with her then why was he the only one she could count on in the end to get her out of that mental hospital when they were attempting to hold her illegally. And why, when she was murdered by the Kennedy's, her doctor and her housekeeper, was he the one who took care of her funeral arrangements and spent all night in vigil with her weeping and sent roses to her grave for over a decade after she died? Additionally, it was known at that time, that she and Joe D. were planning on getting married again when she was murdered. That doesn't sound like someone who had fallen out of love with her.

Fourth, if she was so awful, why did people work with her over and over again (directors George Cukor and John Huston to name some). I'll tell you why, because putting up with someone else's sensitivity to others and others' malicious criticism, which resulted in a higher level of vulnerability than the average person as well as an unfortunate habit of being late which was understandable given who she was and what was expected of her (imagine for a moment if you'd been her, could you have withstood the rigors of being perfect--or rather, the expectation to be?), was worth it for the talent, beauty and magic that she brought to the screen.

Finally, it is widely recognized that none of her later films would have been hits had it not been for her presence, even if it amounted to only moments on screen and especially when she was only a part of an ensemble cast.

You know what she was guilty of? She was guilty of being an artist. It is amazing to me that Hollywood still comes down hard, as it did then, on females that are particular about their work and have standards for themselves as well as those they work with. Look at all the males that have over the years been difficult to work with and they were labeled "eccentric" or "artistic" or just a `star' (with their faults being glossed over). She was labeled crazy and difficult. And now this teleplay trash insinuates that she was a demented, demanding whore that had no scruples. She herself said, "People had a habit of looking at me as if I were some kind of mirror instead of a person. They didn't see me, they saw their own lewd thoughts, then they white-masked themselves by calling me the lewd one."

Can't you admire someone who had the courage to be herself and was her own worst critic, while trying to better herself? She was someone we all should admire. Do you know she formed her own production company in 1955? How many stars had done that at that time during the reign of studio control--male or female? Very few. She was a pioneer who never took her sexpot image seriously. Hollywood actresses owe her a debt for the paths she blazed and the inroads she made as well as the viewers for the joy she brought to the screen.

Know your facts before you open your big mouth to say something ugly about someone you don't know and don't have the grace, stamina, or courage to be. Remember, legends never die and true beauty is forever.

Poppy Montgomery can't be Marilyn Monroe. Poppy Montgomery can't be Marilyn Monroe. Poppy Montgomery can't be Marilyn Monroe. No it's not an erratum. It's my anger !

Casting Poppy Montgomery is horrible. HORRIBLE ! She isn't Marilyn Monroe at all. While Marilyn was the ultimate voluptuous, Montgomery is lean and skinny. She could make a far-fetched Ann-Margret, good Rita Hayworth, or exact Penelope Ann Miller, but no Marilyn. Trying to imitate the super star's axiomatic reactions, moves, walking always ended up as "Please, for the love of god STOP IT" from my side. Then, look at her acting, AHHHHHHH THE ACTING !! Montgomery tried to mix the emotions of Norma Jean and Marlin and display them in the same time to end up as exhausting neurotic. Moreover, Montgomery used to stick an atrocious laugh on the end of every line she says to the extent where you must feel that Marilyn was laughing instead of breathing. At the last scene, with the make-up man, she almost made me want to smash the TV; it was the climax of this over provoking technique, thank god that the movie ended right after that !

The script, with mens rea I think, is dead set on ignoring Marilyn's fine movies. She's shown as hopelessly hideous actress, sorry whore, who didn't succeed at anything but pleasing sexually all the producers and annoying all the directors. If not, why there wasn't one hint to The Seven Year Itch (1955), Bus Stop (1956), The Prince and the Showgirl (1957), Some Like It Hot (1959), and The Misfits (1961) namely the best points of her career ?! Let alone omitting steps like establishing her own production company, or events like being nominated for a BAFTA, while adding – in the same time – erotic fantasies like her love for sleeping with 2 brothers together ?! That, as a whole, uncovers a fishy but vicious reading for her. Now I began to understand why they cast Poppy Montgomery !

I don't know for whom the movie's characters were telling their stories ? It was just an obvious way to speak the unspoken forthrightly (I longed for hearing a narration by the title character at the least, not a fake "True Hollywood Story" !). The relationship with President Kennedy and the moment of singing to him in his birthday party; all of that seemed a bit incomprehensible, or comprehensible only for whoever read about it among the viewers. Which leads to the question : since it is "a fictional story", as the movie admits in the intro, why using names of real characters and movies ? Over and above inaccurate historical facts, such as 2 sons for Charlie Chaplin ?!!

Then, the matter of the kiss between the woman who adopted Marilyn and the latter in her first wedding ?? Historically right or not, the performance of Kirstie Alley, who played the character, showed none other than a frank lesbian love from that woman towards the young Marilyn ? I bet it wasn't Alley's bad acting. It was this movie's thirst for high rating !

The directing is heartbreaking. Despite dealing with the world of glamour it doesn't try to look a bit flashy. Instead, the whole thing takes place in narrow rooms, offices and cafés. The cadres are the same cadres you have seen in all the TV movies before, and maybe with the same sets too. The endless fade-outs, of "put a commercial here", served as a factor of bore, rooting being episodic extremely. The Clark Gable's actor looked like a short Douglas Fairbanks after having a plastic surgery, failed plastic surgery ! And originally how that director agreed to this actress as a lead ? How he forgot to direct her ? And how he didn't see anything awful about her hellishly frequent laugh ?

Merits ? Easy. Casting Titus Welliver as Joe DiMaggio, he could portray the sedate nature of the character, as well as his real love and congested fury. Summarizing all the producers into the character of Mr. R; as if they're all one procurer when it came to deal with that walking sex appeal, no matter she's a human or not. Richard Roxburgh's performance was into the point as both bestial and suave like a wolf in gentleman's clothing. And finally the scenes of the mother; as the best of this movie. They were – with her lines as crazy – a fine comment on the crazy life of the heroine, or a black sneer at her transformation.

So in the worst cases this movie forms a filthy, willfully offensive, picture that after it you must despise all (men, Hollywood, movies, Marilyn). And in the best cases it's about the torture of a girl lived inside a movie star; that used to make people forget their tortures. She didn't find love, respect, and real understanding. Her demons were stronger than her. And in conclusion she was everybody's sex toy, yet more human than them all. The thing is; all of that is said in a poor, no artistic, and boring in many ways movie.

(Blonde) is unfair Marilyn bio-pic, even if imaginative, and due to some reasons – headed by the casting – rather a torturous experience.

...unfortunately, so many people think of marilyn as a trashy gal who slept her way to stardom. as a marilyn fan who has studied her movies, read all the books, watched all the(good and bad)movies, etc, i'm afraid this is just one more instance of downplaying marilyn as a TRAGIC FIGURE. poppy montgomery was fantastic, i did not sit down to watch this movie with much enthusiasm, and except for poppy i was not disappointed. the book is a novel, and all the people who are not that familiar with marilyn as a person will think all this stuff actually happened. a lot of it is made up, with bits of fact thrown in so that we don't forget we're supposed to be watching a marilyn monroe bio. in "blonde" every direction marilyn goes in ends up with her either trying to overdose, or collapsing in tears. marilyn definitely had some troubles, but i don't believe that she was a naturally depressed person. she never stopped working, never stopped trying to better herself. too many of these stories just expose the downside of her life, and "blonde" took it to such an extreme i was totally depressed myself by the time it was over. to me, it was a t.v. movie of the week, saved by poppy's really exquisite performance. if watching "blonde" has piqued your interest in marilyn, then go out and rent all her movies, especially "bus stop" and "gentlemen prefer blondes." you will see that she was a uniquely talented woman, and no dumb blonde.

I read the book. The book was heart-rendering, gut-wrenching, bittersweet. Compared to the book, this tepid lukewarm little British attempt is a far cry from what I had hoped for. One of the reviewers said it beautifully: X-rated life fitted into an R-rated presentation, something like that. Indeed. Also, it is very clear that three hours is too short a time for the stream of events that has to be shown.

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN also came in as not as much as I had hoped for, but it wasn't such a big disappointment as this one. Big question: I wonder what Joyce Carol Oats has to say about the little British attempt?

Best thing about this: The little girl, Skye McCole Bartusiak*. After a shaky start, she got into it, and gave A PERFORMANCE! Whatever Poppy Montgomery came up with, couldn't compare. It was all a letdown.

One observation re the historical representation: How the people could have gone in rhapsody over the fake look, the peroxide blonde hairstyle... It seems they wanted to see a commoner made up as trash. Oh, The Raven shudders! How coarse, dull and cold. Thank you to the Nineties that brought the soft look.

(*Certain to be her best work. Skye is no longer with us. She died accidentally at a very young age due to what seems to be wrongful application of medicine.)

This may be called a fictional account of the life of Norma Jean Baker, and there appears to be mixed reviews on the accuracy of the events, as well as on whether or not Ms. Montgomery's performance truly represented Marilyn Monroe's hardships. I think the naysayers are paying more attention to the difference in the two women's physical attributes or lack thereof in Poppy Montgomery's walk and sexiness.

I have seen enough of Marilyn Monroe's movies and it is my opinion that Poppy Montgomery nailed Ms. Monroe's emotions and voice perfectly. The mini series itself was not very deep but some times a persons true to life story is not all that appealing. Having a mother who could not even take care of herself, is not a real endearing event to have to portray through a 36 year period which was the time of Ms Monroe's actual death.

What we did glean from this mini series is the physical and sexual abuse Norma Jean tolerated from most of the men that came (and went) in to her life. Drug and alcohol dependency was her escapism and Poppy's portrayal of the torment experienced by Ms Monroe came through as close to reality as possible.

I did notice the absence of any portrayal of either of the two Kennedy brothers (John F. and Robert Kennedy) who were strongly rumored to have both shared her bed. This may be a result of the strength that politicians and the Kennedy name still maintained over the studio to this day to keep the good name of the Kennedy's out of the tabloids and may well be the reason for Ms. Monroe's premature demise as alluded to near the end of the movie.

In summary, Poppy Montgomery may not have the physical attributes of Marilyn Monroe, but she studied well the mannerisms and speech of the famous star to provide a very accurate portrayal of Norma Jean Baker through her adult life, and the relationships with the key men in her life.

I'm afraid this wasn't very good, although the girl who played

Marilyn Monroe as a LITTLE girl was amazing, some of the best

child acting I've see. This mini tries to cover all the points of her

life, but reveals nothing new. She was lonely. She wanted a baby.

She wanted love, a family, her father. There is nothing new under

the sun. Bogosian seems to have stepped out of Boogie Nights,

Dunne and Dempsey seem to have need money or something,

the only inspired casting is Ann-Margret as Marilyns grandmother.

Poppy Montgomery does Mariyn 'lite', but you can't really fault her,

the script is just so mediocre you end up feeling sorry for the

actors.

I found this miniseries, to not only be a great story, but also one that needed to be told. Poppy was fantastic, as usual, she is an extraordinary woman, and portrayed Mariyln better than anyone except other than the Woman herself. I am a huge fan of MM, but I would like to say that I think the story could have gone deeper into the death of MM. I found the movie to be moving and relevant, and it offered many insights into the mind of a legend. I'm not too sure about the accuracy of the show, but the quality was terrific. Just when you think you know someone, you find out you don't. And the issue of sexism is still rampant today, and even more so 50 years ago, during the time of MM.

Bad casting, bad acting, bad direction, bad costumes, bad hair, bad, bad, bad. One of the most disastrous impersonations I've ever seen. Sadly, in the right hands and with a better scriptwriter it might have made it mildly interesting. What don't we know about Marilyn? She's been dissected, analyzed and put back together so many times she ceases to be a human being to anyone under 50. If someone is thinking about doing another Marilyn bio movie, or semibio, leave it alone, please. Let Marilyn speak for herself in her own many newsreel clips and movies and records. She does herself better than any of these dimestore dollies.

I've seen the movies, I've read the books. This is just one more take on an otherwise mysterious person. I just don't think we'll ever know where it all went wrong for Norma Jean. This movie, not unlike Norma Jean and Marilyn, wants to make the two names seperate identities. Norma has her make-up and hair done, so she's Marilyn now. I don't know if you can simplify a person that way. When someone finds a diary of a secret service man who knew why MM died, then I want to hear some more. Anything less then that and I say "Let the mystery live!"

It's a brilliant film with superb acting. I have now read eight so-called "non-fiction" biographies of Monroe and they all contradict each other-- even as to the "facts" of her life. As noted above, Oates's approach is fiction. But Oates meditated on her subject for years and did research the life. I'm sure Monroe would have felt that the novel Blonde is by far the truest account of her life written to date. For example, all the stuff about "Gemini" is invented but Marilyn would have laughed gleefully and appreciatively at how perfectly it captures her early career. The performances, particularly Montgomery's and Richardson's, are outstanding. I think most of the negative remarks I read are perfectly asinine and you should be mortified you wrote them.