More thoughts on Marilyn Monroe, the documentary and the book Fragments

Yes, I am excited about the documentary and am hopeful that it will play during the Starz Denver Film Festival. But I do have the book that contains much of the material that is being used for documentary – the two boxes of previously unknown/unpublished material – and I enjoy that. Terry, as she is so good about doing, got this book for me (she is okay with the fact that I have this unfulfilled love affair with Marilyn Monroe and EmmyLou Harris).

Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters by Marilyn Monroe.

The book was published in 2010. It is remarkable, certainly for those of us obsessed with Marilyn. What I trust the documentary does, which is what the book does, is take Marilyn from iconic 'sex' symbol and almost a caricature to a real human being - and an actor who wanted to be the best that she could.

I don't know how Marilyn died; I don't know whether it was suicide or an accident. I subscribe to the notion that it was an accident. I will not even credit the various conspiracy theories about it being some kind of gang-land or political murder. As far as I am concerned that is pure BS.

Marilyn will always be Marilyn: the luminescence, the sex appeal; the desire to rise above her beginnings. She relied upon men to complete her when she didn't realize she could be complete without them. It is interesting to me that many of the ones she relied on, were themselves so insecure that they needed her to complete them. The exception, DiMaggio. I believe he truly loved her – and she loved him - and did not need her 'sex' appeal to complete him.

I admire Arthur Millers' writing. He is certainly one of the great American playwrights of the 20th century and his commentary, through his plays, reflects what I would consider a 'liberal' point of view. But his relationship with Marilyn was hardly admirable. Marilyn had an insecurity related to her 'education'. But she was a voracious reader (she read Ulysses, for god's sake) trying to better herself. I am convinced that the attraction to Miller was literary. I am sad that he did not fulfill her needs. Frankly he failed her on the set of her last film: The Misfits.

The jock treated her better and was there for her in the end when the educated literary type was not.