Blonde (Netflix, 2022), written and directed by Andrew Dominik, and based on the novel by Joyce Carol Oates, is an overpowering film.
As someone whose expertise on Arthur Miller includes an extensive study of the life and career of Marilyn Monroe, I must admit that I was hesitant to view this work. To watch a fictional telling of Marilyn’s life seemed absurd at first, especially when the film is two hours and forty-seven minutes in length. Why bother with fabrication when the truth of her life is so interesting, raw, poignant, and tragic? There are enough documented experiences to create a story that will tell itself.
Fiction based on fact is a model that Miller himself turned to when writing several short stories and at least three of his longer works. The Crucible, of course, comes to mind as a precise example of him using history and the lives...
