Blonde recently arrived on Netflix and mixes fact with fiction in telling a story based on the life of Marilyn Monroe.
New Netflix film Blonde is certainly not a biopic in the traditional sense of the word.
Although the film is technically based on the true story of Marilyn Monroe – and does include several scenes which reflect real moments from her life – its actual source is Joyce Carol Oates's historical fiction novel of the same name, meaning not everything in the film really happened at all.
The film, unsurprisingly, ends with Monroe's death, and you may be wondering if this is one of the parts of the film that was depicted accurately.
Read on for everything you need to know.
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As is shown in the film, Monroe became addicted to prescription drugs, including barbiturates and amphetamines, and soon became dependent on them.
This is said to have begun while she was shooting John Huston's film The Misfits in 1960 – which was written by her then-husband Arthur Miller.
During the shoot, production had to be paused for about a week while Monroe went to a hospital to detox, but she remained addicted and her eventual cause of death was given as a barbiturate overdose.
She was found dead on 5th August 1962, and according to many of her friends at the time, it was considered likely to have been an accident, rather than a suicide.
Many of the circumstances around her death as shown in Blonde do not match up to the historical record – including the suggestion that Monroe was tipped over the edge by the revelation that Cass Chaplin had been sending her letters pretending to be her father, something which is revealed to her by Eddy Robinson following Chaplin's death.
There is no evidence that Chaplin Jr did any such thing, and indeed the suggestion that he died before Monroe is also inaccurate – he actually lived until 1968, when he died of a pulmonary embolism.
Over the years, there have been many conspiracy theories have emerged about the exact nature of Monroe's death – with some even alleging the involvement of the Kennedys – but no evidence has ever come to light to support any of these theories.
Blonde is available to stream on Netflix. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what's on tonight.
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Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
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