Movies - TV
The 12 Wildest Moments In Blonde, Ranked
By ERIC LANGBERG
Spoiler Warning!
This story contains spoilers for "Blonde."
12. Marilyn's Father
The younger Marilyn Monroe is shown a portrait of her missing father by her mother, who explains to her how he disappeared from their lives. While her mother plays piano and she dozes, "Blonde" throws us our first wild moment: The photograph speaks, saying "I love you, Norma Jeane, and one day, I will return to Los Angeles to claim you."
11. Car Crash
Marilyn leaves a set in "Blonde," starts driving recklessly, and hits a tree, but that never occurs; rather, Monroe was famously involved in a car crash, but she wasn't the one behind the wheel and wasn't even in the car that crashed. In "Blonde," Marilyn is blamed for the accident, but in reality, she was distraught and blamed herself.
10. The Letters
In a subplot, Marilyn receives letters from her absent dad and spends most of her life waiting for him. Marilyn later learns that her former flame, Cass Chaplin Jr., has passed away (in reality, Chaplin outlived Monroe by several years) and that Chaplin was the one who was writing her the letters and pretending to be her dad.
9. Marilyn's Ghost
It is said Marilyn died from an accidental overdose, but they depict the death in "Blonde" as a deliberate suicide. The film ends with an overhead shot of Marilyn laying in bed, dead, and her ghost emerging from her body, rolling over and posing seductively; the idea behind the shot is clear: the troubled woman is dead, but the memory of the iconic blonde bombshell lives on.
8. Subway Scene
The most memorable image of Marilyn Monroe comes from "The Seven Year Itch," when she stands over a subway grate with her white dress billowing around her. In "Blonde," the intention is probably to make us feel how objectified and dehumanized Marilyn was by her "sexpot" status, but there's a fine line between critiquing harm and simply replicating it.