The Netflix biopic Blonde about American actress Marilyn Monroe is a tragic, dramatised rendition of the corresponding Joyce Carol Oates biography. After her untimely passing, Marilyn Monroe, one of the biggest stars of 1950s Hollywood, became the subject of innumerable documentaries, films, and contentious studies. However, Dominik vividly depicts Monroe’s emotional problems and their underlying causes in Blonde. Ana De Armas plays Norma Jeane, a regular girl who undergoes a stunning transformation into Marilyn Monroe in the movie. But this transformational journey was quite difficult. According to the movie, the emotional outbursts of Norma Jeane’s single mother Gladys Baker (played by Julianne Nicholson) turned into a nightmare for the young girl and left a lasting scar on her personality from which she never truly recovered. Blonde, in a sense, depicts Norma Jeane’s horrifying memories of her horrible background, which forced her to experience a similar destiny to her mother.
Gladys Pearl Baker led her daughter Norma Jeane into a little room where the story began. She identified him as her father, indicating a portrait of a dashing man that was hanging on the wall. Gladys claimed that she had trouble pronouncing the name of her spouse. She regarded the figure in the painting to be some sort of holy divinity, therefore she wouldn’t even allow Norma Jeane touch it. She was anxious, though, about telling her daughter about her biological father when she revealed the man’s identity. She claimed that the nameless woman’s husband, Norma Jeane’s father, lived far away from them and that she was concerned for him. As she had said, they might or might not be married, but she felt that they were wed in her heart. Gladys appeared agitated. She appeared terrified and as like she was on the lookout for something. She made a lovely cake for her daughter’s birthday and downed a drink, which caused her to pass out once more. The phone kept ringing in her room, but it seemed like only she could hear it. She delivered the cake for her daughter with shaky hands. Her body, on the other hand, felt trembling, as if her house were shaking. Gladys made an effort to live a normal existence, but one evening Norma Jeane witnessed her mother’s evil side. She was awakened by Gladys in the middle of the night, and they both exited the burning room together. With her daughter in the car, she drove to a flaming area that was encircled by law enforcement. Gladys shrieked at the police incoherently that she wanted to meet her husband, an industry titan who shouldn’t be named, and that he should be introduced. She was urged to come back by the police when they discovered her to be mentally unstable. On the way back, Gladys was asked a question, which infuriated her and made her start striking Norma Jeane. She also went back home and even tried to drown her daughter in the shower, but motherhood probably prevented her from actually doing it.
Gladys muttered that Norma Jeane was the reason her husband had left her after an unsuccessful attempt to kill her daughter. Gladys became pregnant, and Norma Jeane’s father most likely left them because the actor did not want to have children outside of marriage. Glady’s unpredictability of thought could have been another factor in his leaving. Little Norma Jeane walked to the house of her neighbour to ask for assistance, but the couple that saved her decided to put her in a foster home. Norma Jeane was classified as an orphan despite having parents, while Gladys was admitted to a hospital to receive treatment for her serious mental condition.
Foster homes were where Norma Jeane was raised. When she was still fairly young, she was exposed to the modelling business. She aspired to pursue acting after modelling in order to one day locate her father, but she had to overcome many obstacles and physical abuse in order to advance the ladder. She went to see her sick mother at Norwalk State Hospital in the interim. Doctors claimed that her mother suffered from a mental disorder that was undiagnosed in the 1950s. Old Gladys occasionally silently listened to her daughter, but other times, she would not even acknowledge her. Norma Jeane continued to honour her duty to her mother. She didn’t want to end up looking like her mother, who she had known since she was a young girl.
On the other hand, she also wanted to be a wife and a mother. In order to have a happy family, Norma Jeane wanted to raise her child in the best way possible. But she felt conflicted when she learned that her mother’s mental illness might be inherited. She reasoned that her mother’s illness might be genetic and pass on to her children in a similar way. Early in her acting career, Norma Jeane fell in love with Cass, a.k.a. Charlie Chaplin Jr. She was, however, also involved in a love triangle with Edward Robinson Jr. For the first time, Norma Jeane became pregnant, with Cass possibly serving as the father. Sadly, though, she was unable to keep that child. She didn’t want her child to inherit any traits from her or her mother’s mental illness. She tried to stop herself multiple times, but ultimately had her first abortion.
The truth is that Norma Jeane’s mother had paranoid schizophrenia. When she was a little child, Gladys Pearl Baker handed her daughter up to another spouse. Since she was a little child, Norma Jeane had lived in foster homes. Gladys came to see her while she was transitioning from the orphanage to a foster household. She even made numerous unsuccessful attempts to take her back. Finally, she was given a paranoid schizophrenia diagnosis and confined to the Metropolitan State Hospital. Following their reunion, Norma Jeane started working for studios and holding auditions all over the country. They were unable to keep up their wonderful rapport, though. Gladys’ mental collapse was made worse by her daughter’s choice to pursue a career in acting. Thus, her relationship with Norma Jeane experienced multiple breakups and reunions. In the interim, Norma Jeane separated from her mother and wed John Eley, leading to their eventual divorce. Big studios required her to lie about her mother’s passing while she was at the height of her stardom as Marilyn Monroe. Although it was stated that Gladys’ parents had already passed away, Gladys was later discovered to be living in 1952. Marilyn was discovered speaking to her mother one final time in 1962. Gladys Pearl Baker finally passed away after a heart attack in 1984. Marilyn’s father, who was her husband, is still a mystery.
Blonde, a fictitious portrayal of Marilyn Monroe’s life, was inspired by the book. Marilyn did not, in fact, grow up with the affection of her biological parents. She had to seek safety with a foster home despite the fact that her mother was still alive. She consequently gets more troubled as she gets older. Like her mother, she had a decline in her mental health. She was forced to go through horrible treatments, like three abortions, which were bad for her mental and physical health. The movie depicts Marilyn’s escalating despair in a horrifying way. Love has been a frequent ebb and flow in her life. She was mentally unstable since her attempts to become a mother were often frustrated. Even though no one would call her, she eventually heard the phone’s constant ringing, much like her mother. She frequently went to the doctor for mental examinations, but things started to deteriorate for her. She finally found solace from the suffering she had experienced her entire life on August 4, 1962. She passed away from a barbiturate overdose, ending her illustrious life.
See More: Duality Of Norma Jeane, Explained: Why She Always Addressed Marilyn Monroe In Third Person In Blonde ?
