The Legend of Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe is shown in a not-so-larger than life, almost clinical light, yet without too much hype, and little embellishments, or conjectures. There are plenty of on camera interviews with those who knew her best-- several of whom admit hardly knew her at all. The structure of the script is excellent. It takes the viewer from her childhood be shuttled from one foster home to another, a brief "real" home with her own mother when she was 9 before her mother was committed to a mental institution and on through her brief marriage at the age of 16, the modeling career that lead her into the Hollywood life that confused and destroyed her. Naturally since this was made in 1964, some of what we know of her life today-- such as her affair with Kennedy and the alleged conspiracy that surround it were not covered, as well as the fact she was sexually abused as a child--but it is nonetheless thought-provoking and moving experience.