Professor Marston and the Wonder Women is a new movie that purports to tell the true story of the people behind the creation of the original Wonder Woman comic book. However, at least one member of the Marston family has some significant issues with the film. Christie Marston is the granddaughter of William and Elizabeth Marston, two of the three main characters in the new movie, and she says that the film is full of inaccuracies, mostly because director Angela Robinson didn't speak with anybody in the family about the content. She also has a problem with the movie's depiction of the relationship between Elizabeth Marston and Olive Byrne. While the movie shows them as lovers, Christie Marston says that's not the case. According to her...
In an interview, Angela Robinson said that she made the choice to not talk to anybody because she wanted to use her own 'interpretation'. Both the depiction of the family and Wonder Woman's origins are made up... Gram (EHM) and Dots (OBR) were as sisters. This, by the way, is not from a child's POV; I was very close to Gram as an adult. My grandfather died before I was born, so I only know him through family stories. No love triangle ever even hinted at -- and Gram was very broad-minded and very open, so if it existed, she had no reason to hide it -- especially from me... we discussed all aspects of life and human psychology.
William Marston, the man who created Wonder Woman certainly led a life that would be deemed unconventional today, nevermind the 1940s where the events took place. It's a commonly held belief that Marston fathered children with both his wife Elizabeth and Olive Byrne, a former student. However, what's less clear is what the relationship was between the two women. The film, Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, suggests that they also had a romantic relationship, but Christie Marston tells BigFanBoy that this was not the case. She had a close relationship with her grandmother, and is certain she would have known if such a relationship had existed.
That's not the only thing that Professor Marston and the Wonder Women gets wrong, according to the granddaughter. The movie also indicates that the character of Wonder Woman was a sort of amalgamation of the two women, going so far as to include a scene where Olive ends up in an outfit very similar to the classic Wonder Woman design. Christie Marston is adamant that this never happened either.
Movies based on true stories nearly always take some degree of liberty with the facts in order to tell a more compelling story, and unfortunately, the people this film is about are all gone, so nobody can ask them what the truth really is. Professor Marston and the Wonder Woman may be a pretty good movie, but it may not be an entirely accurate one.
