The Plot of the Film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes - Essay Example

The songs by Styne and Robin were taken from the Broadway show. It is the funny story of Lorelei Lee, a beautiful actress who is very much excited to become a part of Jazz culture. She however is extremely innocent that she does not understand she is prey for other people’s funs. She is easily taken by flattering. The characteristic feature of this movie is that it is rich with comedic moments and musical numbers. Marilyn Monroe’s beauty and charm is unforgettable. The movie altogether is a brilliant combination of song, love, and laughter.

I think Monroe’s performance of the song Diamonds Are a Girls Best Friend and her pink dress would gain any viewer’s immediate attention. This is the main reason I think, why the film was welcomed by a series of enthusiastic reviews. This movie was rated as the sixth highest-grossing film of 1953. It collected total revenue of seven and a half million dollars at the box office. One would surely admire Monroe and Russell for their performances. Evidently, this is the movie that assisted them to become so popular in Hollywood.

It is relevant to discuss a few things about the article ‘Gentlemen consume blondes’ written by Maureen Turim. In this article, Turim explores to what extent the obviously exploitive ‘sexual display’ of Monroe and Russell in Gentlemen prefer Blondes undercut the performers’ own well-communicated self-awareness of the display, by ‘cynicism and cleverness’. The author gives particular focus to the way the film depicted female sexuality. In her article, Turim refers to Anita Loos’s satiric novella of 1925 which was written in the background of the postwar American culture.

In the novella, the display of the female body was greatly linked to commodity consumption. According to Turim, the success of the movie has to be attributed to various factors including but not limited to Monroe’s charming beauty, Russell’s outstanding performance, dance, music, costumes, and sumptuous sets. Tim explains the applicability of visual pleasure theories. The writer does not support overly generalized accounts of narrative as she thinks that sometimes particular textual operations would not fit the broad theory.

Tim's ideas support the viewpoints of several other authors such as Salt, Polan, and Andrew who focused greatly on the dominance of specific analyses over general theories. The writer tries to describe that women are aware of their status as a tool for satisfying the erotic desires of men. In short, the article greatly explains various difficulties faced by women in the perspective of sexuality. Anyhow, it is very interesting to see how Lorelei does everything to win the love and appreciation of men.

She believes that she has to maintain charisma at any means if he wants to be in their company. She thus transforms into a self-made woman. Nevertheless, her persona is sarcastically questioned regardless of the positive traits she demonstrates.