MOVIE REVIEW: Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story
A beautiful face, a beautiful mind…
Hedy Lamarr has the type of biography that begs for a feature-length documentary: a glamorous movie star that was once considered “the most beautiful woman in the world” that also is inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame due to working on creating the technology for secure radio communications that helped fight the Axis Powers in WWII and directly led to wifi and Bluetooth. She also caused a scandal for appearing nude and simulating an orgasm in a film… in 1933 and was married and divorced six times each. To say that Hedy Lamarr led a fascinating life is quite the understatement.
Lamarr’s life gets the documentary treatment in Bombshell, from director Alexandra Dean, and somehow it’s compressed into about 90 minutes. Dean clearly enjoyed researching Lamarr’s story and putting together this film. While researching a Hollywood legend, another Hollywood legend, Susan Sarandon, loaned her home to the production HQ. Watching it, you find so many aspects of her story that you want to explore more (I want read a book dedicated her Hedy Lamarr the inventor).
It’s tough not to wonder why her story hasn’t been told in this way until now because it’s so endlessly fascinating and there are so many parts that would resonate with the culture, like the Catch-22 of the US military telling her that she could best serve the war effort by selling bonds, but seizing the patents on her inventions, unequivocally beneficial to fighting the war, on grounds of her being an immigrant.
There is plenty of sexism that impacted her, making the story equally inspiring and infuriating. Trying to prove she was more than a pretty face made the story tragic as she found herself making some bad decisions (shoplifting, drug use). I think plenty of groans will be emitted when viewers see Mel Brooks (who I revere but can only shake my head here) say that he was so taken by Lamarr’s beauty that he wanted to marry her, and barring that, at least wanted to feel her up.
By making a movie about the life of Hedy Lamarr, Alexandra Dean found a story that needed to be told but very easily could have been lost to history and false narratives. Even though it’s not the first telling of Lamarr’s life, it might be the most accessible. It’s a surprisingly timely film and we’re all enriched by its existence. I’m certain there will be a non-zero number of people who see this movie that will get Hedy Lamarr tattoos after seeing it. I don’t think I’ve ever said that about a documentary before.
Bombshell is an overall great documentary, even if 90 minutes was hardly enough time to include everything in this fascinating story.
{Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story plays at the Northwest Film Forum from January 17 through January 21, tickets and showtimes can be found here.}
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