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Joan, Christina, & Mommie Dearest
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<blockquote data-quote="Crimson" data-source="post: 232457" data-attributes="member: 5079"><p>A fraught topic, and one in which people tend to be conspicuously all-or-nothing. Either Joan was the most monstrous bitch who ever lived, or Christina was a lying ingrate. Two things can simultaneously be true. Joan could have been a (very) bad mother, and Christina could have sensationalized for revenge and profit. One does not invalidate the other. </p><p></p><p>Donald Spoto, in his biography of Joan, is entirely dismissive of Christina's claims*; some of his counter-arguments are compelling and, I admit, I find Christina's motivations to be somewhat suspect. That said, even removing Christina's direct allegations, it's easy to see the problem. Joan was a career and image obsessed workaholic; a heavy-drinker with a hot temper and tendency to throw things; a strict disciplinarian with a crackpot ideology about hardship being good for kids and a lunatic mania for cleanliness. By most accounts, Christina and Christopher were "problem" children. (Myrna Loy, perhaps the sanest star of the era, commented that seeing Christina made her grateful to never have had kids of her own.) Not that unruly children deserved whatever Joan inflicted on them, but that was a powderkeg.</p><p></p><p>That said, when talking about Christina's allegations, the movie should be relegated to the garbage heap; the movie manages to be both a overwrought character assassination on Joan <em>and</em> trivialize Christina's ordeal. The movie is pure trash and, being based on some very troubling allegations, enjoying it as camp seems rather callous.</p><p></p><p>*Anyone invested in conventional Hollywood lore should probably avoid Spoto's work. Not only was he entirely pro-Joan, in his biography of Marilyn he disputes the Kennedy affairs and dismisses the conspiracies as lurid fantasies concocted by shysters.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Crimson, post: 232457, member: 5079"] A fraught topic, and one in which people tend to be conspicuously all-or-nothing. Either Joan was the most monstrous bitch who ever lived, or Christina was a lying ingrate. Two things can simultaneously be true. Joan could have been a (very) bad mother, and Christina could have sensationalized for revenge and profit. One does not invalidate the other. Donald Spoto, in his biography of Joan, is entirely dismissive of Christina's claims*; some of his counter-arguments are compelling and, I admit, I find Christina's motivations to be somewhat suspect. That said, even removing Christina's direct allegations, it's easy to see the problem. Joan was a career and image obsessed workaholic; a heavy-drinker with a hot temper and tendency to throw things; a strict disciplinarian with a crackpot ideology about hardship being good for kids and a lunatic mania for cleanliness. By most accounts, Christina and Christopher were "problem" children. (Myrna Loy, perhaps the sanest star of the era, commented that seeing Christina made her grateful to never have had kids of her own.) Not that unruly children deserved whatever Joan inflicted on them, but that was a powderkeg. That said, when talking about Christina's allegations, the movie should be relegated to the garbage heap; the movie manages to be both a overwrought character assassination on Joan [I]and[/I] trivialize Christina's ordeal. The movie is pure trash and, being based on some very troubling allegations, enjoying it as camp seems rather callous. *Anyone invested in conventional Hollywood lore should probably avoid Spoto's work. Not only was he entirely pro-Joan, in his biography of Marilyn he disputes the Kennedy affairs and dismisses the conspiracies as lurid fantasies concocted by shysters. [/QUOTE]
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