Rating: 
Summary: Marilyn is a MISFIT in this MMovie!
Review: OK, as a certified Marilyn Monroe fan, I am expected to love everything she ever did in her career. But this film is hard to like. It's the antithesis of a Marilyn Monroe film.My question is: What was husband Arthur Miller thinking when he wrote this screenplay for her? Wasn't Marilyn depressed enough in real life that she didn't need to appear depressed in reel life too? Depressing and dated in the morals and attitudes of the male characters, this film plays out like a demented fantasy of Arthur Miller's warped ego. Is this the Marilyn he wanted to present to the world in an attempt to explain his own personal problems in dealing with their marriage? In the film every man wants to "do" Monroe. (Except thankfully for the character played by notoriously gay actor Montgomery Clift.) Is this what haunted Miller throughout their marriage? Arthur! get over it! For whatever reason this film was made. It almost killed Marilyn in the process, and actually did kill off both the Monroe-Miller marriage and costar Clark Gable. The press blamed Marilyn for Gable's death, saying she put stress on him during the filming. My theory is that the deeply depressing script is what killed everything. Thelma Ritter is the only comic relief, drunkenly hammering on the cast on her arm with a knife, saying her arm was broken because "I misbehaved. I get so sick of myself." Well, evidently Arthur Miller got sick of himself sometimes too, which is why he wrote this. Still a must-see for any true Monroe fan, as it was her final completed film. But what a depressing note to go out on! After viewing this film take three nembutals and call me in the morning.
Rating: 
Summary: MM WAS A GREAT ACTRESS
Review: MARILYN MONROE IS NOT GIVEN THE CREDIT SHE DESERVES. SHE GIVES A WONDERFUL RAW, DRAMATIC PERFORMANCE HERE. WATCH "SOME LIKE IT HOT" AND THIS BACK TO BACK AND YOU WILL SEE HER TALANT. SHE CAN MAKE YOU FEEL LAUGHTER OR SADNESS WITH A SINGLE FACIAL EXRESSION. I THINK IF MARILYN WERE AROUND TODAY SHE MIGHT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO BE HAPPIER IN HER CARRER. AFTER ALL PEOPLE WHO KNEW HER ALWAYS SAID SHE WAS "AHEAD OF HER TIME"
Rating: 
Summary: myth, hype, legend and tragedy overshadow film-
Review: This is an interesting film, as it seems to be the eulogy of three Hollywood institutions: the Western, Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe. It is facinating to watch because both Gable and Monroe would die before completing another film project. There is also interest in the film because of the infamous delays and problems that plagued the film.
Under the gauze of all this mess, is a little film, that in itself is brilliantly acted, well directed, but not very well-written.
Arthur Miller is the nation's greatest playwrite, but he made a major misstep in this, a valentine to his then-wife, Monroe. However, he writes for her a part, that is distressingly like every other part she played (with the exception of Sugar Kane in "Some Like It Hot"), a dumb blonde. The difference is that instead of exaggerating her winsome and appealing qualities, like "How to Marry a Millionaire" or "Seven Year Itch," did, it magnified her vices (her propensity for self-pity, her inability to articulate herself) and projected on the screen another version of the cartoon dumb blonde--only this one isn't much fun to watch. That she handles the role and gives the performance she did is a wonder--it does prove that she was just as musch an "Artist" as Miller, maybe more.
Gable, in his best performance, plays a variation on Miller, and does it well--he like Monroe uses pathos (although his character is better written than hers).
The film deals with cowboys befriending a listless divorcee, before a round-up of some mustangs. The film is well directed, with great emphasis on the scenery. However, the film's tone is pallid and static, and you feel as if you want to push the characters along as they stand around, feeling sorry for themselves, while spouting the ponderous dialogue.
Montgomery Clift also gives an excellent performance, although he, like the film and the rest of the cast, is overshadowed by the nuclear-like star-power combo of Gable and Monroe. Thelma Ritter offers another of her reliable performances, and Eli Wallach does a solid job as well.
THis is essentially a "Method" movie, with Monroe, Wallach and Clift all being actors trained at Strasburg's Actor's Studio. The acting is better than the script (like every other Monroe picture), but still seing the two most important figures of American film together for their final scenes is still worth watching.
Rating: 
Summary: this is how I want to remember marilyn
Review: not the colorized dancing comedian -- a made up caricature for hollywood....but a real life character with living emotional strengths and weaknesses...or maybe its the straight, long flowing blonde hair, girl-next-door face, ski slope nose and fragile, vulnerable eyes that I can't get out of my mind...or all these human qualities set against the stark black and white wilderness.....to me, in this film, marilyn is a permenent vision of beauty.
Rating:
Summary: marilyn at her best & most vulnerable
Review: So many critics "panned" this flick - but most of them probably didn't even bother to watch it....besides having the "dream" cast - Monty, Clark & the great Thelma Ritter - Marilyn is at her most vulnerable - a divorcee with so many hangups - her relationship with Clark Gable is amazing to watch on screen; especially the scenes in the desert with the horse. And who can forget the camera as it lingers on Marilyn's face at the end - looking into the stars. Searching. Seeking. Yearning. Come on - you've got to admit it - if Liz played this role the critics would be all over themselves - but its Marilyn & oh how they love to pan her....... Give it a watch - in glorious black & white - amazing how DVD format gives the genre such depth & a perfect complement to the cast.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting film
Review: "The Misfits" boasts an all-star cast and an interesting, if unusual story. The script has a few holes in it, but the colorful characters keep you watching. The last scene of Marilyn and Gable looking up at the stars as they drive home is hypnotic and powerful. It caused me to remember that both of these legends never completed another film, and that neither lived much longer after the movie was finished.
Rating:
Summary: a sobering tale
Review: Both Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable's last film (they would both die within a year), THE MISFITS is a sobering tale of people living in the past, unable to accept the present and the uncertain future in store for them. Monroe plays Roslyn Tabor, a newly divorced woman who falls in with a loud rabble of horse poachers who used to be in control and sure of their lives. As the days go on they are less sure than ever of their validity to society. Thelma Ritter, Eli Wallach, Montgomery Clift and Estelle Winwood are all in fine form here, too, as the friends of Roslyn and the "misfits" themselves. The great score by Alex North is sensational, and John Huston's direction is superlative, as is Arthur Miller's scipt (he was married to Monroe at the time and based the character of Roslyn on her.) A very interesting film.
Rating:
Summary: Marilyn's best film!
Review: This is a good film about the deeds of two cowboys who meet with a divorcee and embark on all kinds of adventures. The story tends to drift a bit, but Marilyn Monroe is at her best, perhaps because this was her last film and she had gained experience.
Rating:
Summary: Marilyn's finest
Review: John Huston said that making this picture was surreal; he thought Monroe was really crying out against the brutal violations of her own life. The character of Roslyn Tabor was a character that Marilyn knew well. Marilyn herself probably hated working on this picture because, aside from BUS STOP, the emotional demands this character made on her must have been exhausting. It is likely that because of her innate familiarity with this character (whether she acknowledged it or not) and the hard work it took to confront her, the MISFITS became the perfect vehicle to show off Monroe's range. No other film had really given her the opportunity to showcase that. Arthur Miller's writing gave the public a sincere glimpse, through Roslyn, of what it must have been like to endure life as Marilyn Monroe. Perhaps Monroe was too inundated with the performance to appreciate it, but the character of Roslyn is Arthur's lovely tribute to her. Roslyn, who has so much more depth and innocence than her outward appearance suggests, finds herself mystified by life and it's painful changes, always ending up alone and "right where I started." Roslyn appears to be completely honest and accepting of all, often victimized by allowing people to project their own tawdry thoughts onto her. Roslyn is a tarnished angel: a child in a woman's body, a nightclub dancer whose innocent motive is just to dance, a woman very eager to make everyone happy at her own expense. She, by society's standards, is very much a misfit so she naturally bonds well with the misfits she meets in Nevada where she has hit rock bottom over her divorce; she is easily drawn to the lifestyle of the cowboys and their disregard for the "real" world (the boring world of commitment and wages). While every character seems to energy suck Roslyn to some degree (aside from Isabel, played with sheer genius by Thelma Ritter, who doesn't have the self esteem to do anything but adore Roslyn) she nobly tries to make sense of her feelings, tries to help the lost men as much as she can, without being roped in and captured, like the misfit horses they round up and sell. If you haven't already guessed, this film is heavy with metaphors about Marilyn's life. Gay, played by Clark Gable, is the only one who sees her for who she really is, but to win her love and respect, he'll have to trade in his old way of being alive, for the new one that she can show him. It might be of interest to modern viewers that animal rights is one of THE MISFITS themes. Monroe and Gable share some fantastic moments where he, stereotypically masculine, wants to hunt and she, blessedly feminine, is outraged by it. What I consider a great moment in cinema history is the screaming fit Monroe has in the desert. As she watches the men break the spirits of the horses, she cries out "you're only happy when you can see something die " - if that isn't laden with prophecy, I don't know what is. I have seen this movie countless times and still get shivers watching that scene. And I can, at times, see Princess Diana's life in the metaphors of Roslyn's. I agree with the reviewers who said Monroe should have received an Oscar nomination for that scene alone. Aside from all the tragedy, Monroe LOOKS every inch a goddess. Women just don't look like that anymore. They can't. In all seriousness, the only people left who seem to possess that much grace and feminity are female impersonators, probably because they studied and affected the mannerisms of the great sex symbols of the past. It's great that women are so self realized now that we do not need those affectations any longer, but at the same time, it almost seems a crime these days to have fun with and exaggerate your feminity. That's what I liked about Monroe. She was unabashedly all woman and never so much as in this film. Marilyn, probably unintentionally, gave an ethereal, haunting depth to the beautiful Roslyn Tabor. What's wonderful about this picture being shot in black and white is it makes everyone look more dramatic...and Marilyn so immortal. If you want to get really heavy, I suggest you double bill this film with a modern movie about another sullied angel and her misfit lover, LEAVING LAS VEGAS (although LLV does not leave you with the same optimism as THE MISFITS). Both films focus on women who are equally angelic and pornographic, and who desire to rescue men to boost their self worth. Both have male leads who are considered failures by society's standards. The beauty of watching these characters is in how long these people can help each other to survive. Because of such devastating performances from Gable, Clift, Monroe, Wallach, and Ritter (and the added distinction of being directed by John Huston and written by Arthur Miller), if you consider yourself a film connoisseur, you must add THE MISFITS to your collection. With repeated viewing, it just gets better and better.
Rating:
Summary: Stark Drama
Review: Arthur Miller wrote the screenplay for this film about a group of people, rootless and alone, who come together in Reno, Nevada and learn a little something about themselves. Marilyn Monroe stars as a dancer who has come to Reno for a divorce from her husband Kevin McCarthy. She stays with divorcee Thelma Ritter, and she has no idea where to move on to next. Eli Wallach is a pilot/cowboy who falls for her, and he's a widower with a house out in the middle of nowhere he offers to her. Clark Gable is his cowboy partner who falls for Monroe, too. Montgomery Clift is a walking rodeo accident/cowboy who joins up with them to go Mustanging. Each character has their own story, secrets, and pain, and Monroe seems to be the one who draws it out of them. Monroe gives an excellent performance, fragile yet sexy, and it shows the kind of actress she was becoming. The men all give top performances as well, and Thelma Ritter proves again that she could deliver a wisecrack better than anyone. The scenes surrounding the capture of the Mustang horses are unforgettable, and all the more starkly presented with the terrific black and white photography. This isn't a film that will make you feel good when it's over, but it presents some very real characters in an almost too honest way.
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