When you look back at the past few Oscar seasons, what trends do you see? The actors and actresses that normally lead the award season stretches are those playing real-life figures. Biopics are films centered around historic and public figures and they’re all the rage nowadays. Every major studio wants to get their hands on one. Really think about how many have been released just in the past few years. “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Rocketman,” “RESPECT,” “Straight Outta Compton” and “Elvis’ are some of the biggest biopics— and that only covers musicians. Politicians, royalty, athletes, serial killers; if you had some kind of presence in history, chances are a studio will want your film rights. However, one of the newest biopics, “Blonde”, starring Ana De Armas as Marilyn Monroe, has left me pondering the question: Where do we draw the line?

This isn’t a review of “Blonde”, but rather a reflection on the ethical nature of biopics and how they depict and use these deceased celebrities for a profit. “Blonde” is an unwaveringly brutal three-hour film, showing every terrible moment in Marilyn Monroe’s short life. Oftentimes, the film becomes so cruel that it feels dehumanizing. This is what I mean. Biopics usually suffer from falling into two extremes, glamorizing their subject and glazing over the low points in their career, or the opposite, focusing on the worst aspects to an extent that if feels exploitative.

Take for example, “Bohemian Rhapsody.” The film virtually ignores much of the hardships that Freddie Mercury endured and streamlines a fascinating figure in music history. On the other hand, you have the latest Netflix series, “Dahmer”, which grossly dedicates itself to recreating the horrific murders in excruciating detail. Naturally, this has upset the families of the victims. Eric Perry, the cousin of Dahmer victim Errol Lindsey, took to Twitter with to say “when they say they’re doing this ‘with respect to the victims’ or ‘honoring the dignity of the families,’ no one contacts them,” he wrote. “My cousins wake up every few months at this point with a bunch of calls and messages and they know there’s another Dahmer show. It’s cruel.”

Now that isn’t to say that biopics should not explore the dark sides of their subject, but it makes them seem far less complex and interesting when they choose to only explore one or the other. Back to “Blonde,” the reason I feel so strongly that it does Marilyn Monroe a disservice is because it only shows one side of her. It shows Marilyn at the lowest points of her life, which shouldn’t be ignored, but takes away the moments of her life that did bring her joy and makes her feel less human. Monroe was intelligent, she was witty, she had interests, and while she had her tragedies, it wasn’t the sole factor that based every decision she made. Despite what this movie would want you to believe. 

Elvis Presley may have been manipulated by Colonel Tom Parker, but Elvis was still an adult, who was more than capable of making decisions for himself: “Elvis” says that isn’t so. “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Rocketman” are both guilty of having an evil lover leading our heroes down the wrong path. While I enjoy these films, I cannot deny that these are gross oversimplifications, and removes any feeling that these figures could make decisions for themselves, which in real-life, they clearly could.

Look, I understand that in the end, some things are going to be changed for the sake of entertainment, but we come to see these movies or shows to see what these icons were like. And by simplifying, romanticizing, or downright removing the aspects that make them so complex and interesting to begin with, it just feels like they’re being used to sell tickets or soundtracks. Deep down, we must realize that these biopics aren’t made at the consent of their subjects, they’re made at the consent of whoever owns their estates. It’s a business in the end, not done out of respect or by a studio that cares to tell the story of a real human being, but rather a bidding war of who gets dibs on the next dead celebrity.

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