While it was something of a shock to see that Netflix’s Marilyn Monroe biopic Blonde earned an NC-17 rating, the movie’s release confirms that the Ana de Armas vehicle more than made the notorious rating. Director Andrew Dominik’s Blonde is gaining divisive reviews and stimulating a lot of online debate over the line between sensationalism and sincerity. A sweeping, three-hour epic that chronicles the life of Marilyn Monroe, Blonde is an adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’s controversial novel of the same name.
However, the creators of the Marilyn Monroe biopic controversially opted to keep the NC-17 rating and bypass any modifications to preserve the movie’s story. This evolved a big point of debate in the lead-up to Blonde’s release, and now that the film has reached on Netflix, it is clear that Blonde more than made its NC-17 rating. While nowhere near as violent as many mainstream movies and not as explicitly sexual as some viewers might anticipate, Blonde is intense, dark, and persistent enough in its suffocating definition of sexual exploitation to deserve the prohibitive adults-only ratings. In charge to do these serious themes judge, the oft-discussed rating is definitely well-earned.
Why Blonde’s NC-17 Rating Is So Controversial
Some unexpected mainstream releases such as the Bret Easton Ellis adaption American Psycho, Braveheart, and even director Wes Craven’s seminal teen slasher Scream were originally handed the rating before cuts earned these titles a more available R rating. However, most of the films that earn NC-17 ratings are art home films and foreign releases whose exact scope means they were always feasible to cause fuss, as was the matter with The Dreamers, and Nymphomaniac. Given this group, the recognition of the rating for a film such as Blonde is maybe surprising.
Blonde shows Monroe as a sufferer of misusage from her mother, her husband, the President of the United States, and multiple romantic partners. While this vitriol isn’t always dwelled upon, it is an enduring presence in Blonde and causes the biopic a brutally dark, difficult watch. Where even the grittiest movie’s stunning gore and over-the-top shocks can remind witnesses that they are observing a movie, Blonde’s decision to regularly play down the star’s concussions as they are constantly, relentlessly passed on an innocent lead temperament makes the movie disquietingly influential, and all the more inappropriate for younger viewers.