As a result of “The Misfits” options Marilyn Monroe’s remaining work as a display performer, it carries a sure tragic weight, not helped by the actress’ well being points and barbiturate habit. And, as written by husband Arthur Miller, the film makes her acquainted character kind much more fragile by shoving it right into a hard-edged world of powerful and bitter males. Whereas a film like Howard Hawks’ star-making “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” would lean into the comedian nature of her persona, “The Misfits” insists on heavy drama.
In keeping with Sarah Churchwell’s “The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe,” Miller primarily based the screenplay on an authentic story entitled “Please Do not Kill Something,” a mirrored image of his spouse’s emotions in the direction of violence. As if to replicate that, Roslyn (Monroe) is a divorcee in her mid-30s, one with an virtually childlike adoration of the pure world and the boys she meets.
She’s naive too, gleefully dancing within the sundown whereas down-on-their-luck cowboy Gaylord (Clark Gable) and trucker Guido (Eli Wallach) leer. Many instances all through the film, males hungrily watch her, and John Huston’s digital camera does the identical. The plot issues those self same males wrangling stunning wild mustangs with the intention of promoting them to be made into pet food.
Miller’s insistence on writing the position of Roslyn for Monroe suggests a sure condescension in the direction of her, enjoying into and deconstructing the baby-voice sexuality that had grow to be so iconic. As he wrote in his memoir “Timebends: A Life,” he felt he was establishing a “present for her.” Whereas she starred in Billy Wilder’s “Some Like It Hot,” Huston shaped an distinctive solid round her, together with Gable, Wallach, and Montgomery Clift.
