Pamela Anderson wants to set the record straight about all that the media has reported throughout her career and private life. The Netflix documentary, Pamela A Love Story, allows her to share her story through personal videos and diaries.
The film portrays a wholesome spirit with an open mind. The sexualised creature that yellow journalism has banked upon is a twisted depiction of Pamela Anderson’s authentically kindhearted nature. Undoubtably her impulsiveness comes across, since she got married multiple times, but she explains how being a romantic has simply nurtured her persistence in not giving up on love. Today, instead, she is content with being uncoupled, thinking about her grown-up sons, Brandon and Dylan, and looking back at the affair with their father as being the most complete love story of her life: Tommy Lee.
The most famous blonde of the planet, defined by the tabloids as the “sultry sex goddess” displays a great sense of humour in the film directed by Ryan White. Her entire biography is encapsulated in this tender and veritable motion picture. Another cinematic piece, that attempted to narrate the history of Pamela’s most infamous life episode, pales to comparison. Pam & Tommy — the miniseries created for Hulu — comes across as a very commercial product. It surely entertains audiences as Lily James and Sebastian Stan enact the marriage between the Baywatch actress and the Mötley Crüe drummer, when their unauthorised sex tape was made public. However by trying to justify the man who stole the racy VHS, it made the real protagonists relive the traumatic experience.
In Ryan White’s film, Pamela Anderson shows her generosity in baring her soul by chronicling all the life moments that were damaging for her, from being raped as a teenager, to being physically assaulted by some of her partners, to being constantly identified as the untalented bimbo whose only skill was to take her clothes off.
Pamela explains how she did not make any money out of the sex tape scandal, although many others did. Throughout her life she was often in debt. Her focus went into helping others rather than helping herself.
Nudity was natural for this Canadian beauty, who was also very open in speaking about plastic surgery at a time when others would be more aloof about it. Anderson’s career was as spontaneous as her personality, one surprise after the next, nothing planned, just like her improvised weddings. The only field where she used her famous body knowledgeably was to shed light on her activism against animal cruelty with PETA.
Playmate, CJ Parker, Barbara from Barb Wire, are all the masks Pamela Anderson has worn, and the irony is they all came with nudity. Yet being naked has always been the way for the girl from Ladysmith to take power back of her sexuality, that had been compromised from a very young age.
Pamela A Love Story further shows the actress’ dedication to human right causes, with her support towards Julian Assange, and her phoenix-like quality to embrace new challenges, like starring in a Broadway show for the first time in her fifties. Pamela Anderson further sets a valuable example by taking accountability for the adversities she has confronted, by claiming she doesn’t want to come across as a victim and that she is grateful to all the experiences. Her grace and sympathy thus become the true secret of her glamour.
Final Grade: B+