Goodbye, Norma Jean

The Intro. reads "not as others told it; not as she told it; but as it really was". WRONG! It doesn't even get her early hair color right.

It depicts Marilyn as a complete naive airhead, who did not enjoy sex, and whose life (other than her eventual success in movies) was one of neverending abuse. She is depicted as really the same as the studio-pushed persona she later often had to use - a dumb blonde with that airhead voice. There is something of the Cinderella story here, as her early life was rough. The real basis of the film is the "revenge" theme. There is quite a man-hating aspect to it. It is not graphic, but the heroine endures repeated abuse, including rapes, forced lesbian sex and oral sex (in this movie it might be called "the casting floor"), but gets her revenge by eventually becoming a success as Marilyn. Some poor films and most soaps are watchable because of an attractive cast; this one lacks even that, other than Preston Hanson and Patch Mackenzie.

this is the worst movie i have ever seen. yes, i know that marilyn was raped but they make it so rediculous,like with a woman. i really dont think she would stoop so low.i have read up on her very much and there was no mention of that many rapes, or that close together. it seemed like everyday she got raped at least once. it is just heartbreaking to see a movie like that saying this is how it happened and it is the worst movie ever made

Rather surprised not to see "Goodnight, Sweet Marilyn" listed as a Larry Buchanan movie, or mentioned here. "GSM" is the sequel Buchanan mainly edited together in 1989. Two actresses are credited for the title role, Misty Rowe as "Norma Jean Baker", and Paula Lane as "Marilyn Munroe". The big problem is that all Misty's scenes are from the first film, (I vaguely recall some possible redubbing of scenes, but it has been years), and there isn't a whole lot of credible resemblance between the actresses. While "Goodbye, Norma Jean" showed a bit of flair, reminiscent of Buchanan's "Art" film, "Strawberries Need Rain", I'm afraid that this overblown cut-and-paste job, is definitely the work of the man who gave us "Zontar, The Thing From Venus". It kind of started the whole trend of "sequels that use as little new footage as possible", later a hallmark of the dreadful "Silent Night, Deadly Night" series. Over half of "Goodbye, Norma Jean" gets repeated here, and not even the filmstocks match. As often happens with his work, Buchanan was both ahead, and behind, the times simultaneously.

--Judex.1--

I remember bullying my then-boyfriend (now husband, in spite of my demonstrably bad taste in movies by wanting to even SEE this) to go see this in '76 when it first came out. He fought it, but being a guy, he finally agreed to humor me. About ten minutes into the movie, people started leaving -- it was THAT bad. I turned to him and said, "OK, you win. It stinks. Let's go." My punishment? We couldn't go -- we had to sit there and watch the WHOLE THING. Omigod, it must have been filmed by a blind man and edited a drunk and on crack. It was just an exploitively poor excuse for soft porn that happened to tack Marilyn Monroe's name on it. If I were her, I'd sue from the grave! When the final credits started to roll, he turned to me and said, "I'm sorry -- it was so bad that NO ONE should have had to sit through that." We still laugh about it, 30 years later, but it's definitely the top of the list as far as bad movies go!

I disagree strongly with the above review. Sure, this basically a 70's exploitation flick with nudity but I think that GOODBYE NORMA JEAN is an underrated film that holds up quite well and is a better movie than the similar one made for HBO a few years ago with Ashley Judd and Mia Sorvino sharing the title role. Misty Rowe is very good in the title role and the movie is surprising in it's accuracy, not glossing over some of the more sordid details of Ms Monroe's life. Well worth seeking out..