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Documenting the life of Marilyn Monroe has been a cottage industry for more than 60 years. Admirers vehemently debate the most insightful — and most problematic — biographies and documentaries about the Blonde Bombshell’s eventful life on Reddit subs, Facebook groups and in other fan communities.
It’s not easy picking the highlights from dozens of documentaries and hundreds of books, but here are some vintage and more recent titles that stand out.
The most recent longform Marilyn documentary uses the unheard tapes that were utilized for the book “Goddess” — including interviews with John Huston and Billy Wilder — to focus on the circumstances around her death. Variety critic Owen Gleiberman said, “ ‘The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe’ is the rare tabloid exposé that wants to set the record straight, and does. It confronts the key questions, as well as the conspiracy theories.” Other reviewers, though, slammed it as “sinister” and “tawdry.”
Acclaimed documentarian Liz Garbus directed this doc based on the book “Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters,” edited by Stanley F. Buchthal and Bernard Comment. Critics called it an “elegant pastiche” based on Monroe’s own writings and read by a parade of notable names.
