Million Dollar Baby: Some spoilers (Consider yourself warned)
A couple of months ago when this was in the theater, I asked a friend if she was going to see it. "Not on your life," she replied with The Big Frown. The theatrical release came and went but with the new baby I never made it to the theater. But me being me, I couldn't resist renting it when it came out on DVD. I found it to be a well-crafted movie.
The movie is really composed three acts. The first act sets establishes Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood), a professional trainer, would be willing to train a "girlie." The second part details the career of said girlie, Maggie Fitzgerald (Hillary Swank), a 31 year old woman from a white trash background, from the time she starts training with Frankie until her final fight. [SPOILER] The final part of the story deals with her paralyzation and eventual death via euthanasia. [/SPOILER]
Separated from its politics, the movie is close to a masterpiece. The actors do a wonderful job realizing their characters. Hillary Swank does a great job with Maggie, showing her determination and how her emotions slip out from the fissures in the tough persona she's adopted. Clint Eastwood's Frankie Dunn starts the picture as a decendent from his tough trainers in pulp like Heartbreak Ridge. By the end of the picture, his character has emerged as a more three dimensional character with real emotional conflict. Morgan Freeman plays Eddie Dupree, a former boxer and friend of Frankie, as an extension of Red from Shawshank Redemption. The script does a good job at letting these tough characters emerge from their stereotypes in a believable way.
But it is tough to look at a movie that contains such an explosive political element as just a movie. While the characterization of the mentally-challenged boxer can't have helped relations with the disabled community, Million Dollar Baby has drawn its ire for endorsing euthanasia. At one point, Maggie tells Frankie that she wants to die before she can't remember the crowds cheering her name. While I can see how disability advocates can look at this as a condemnation of a paralyzed person's life as being not worth living, I can also see how this character in this situation could respond to her circumstances by perferring a quick death to a long lingering one. I think that if the writer had given the impression that the events surrounding her downward spiral took a longer time that the audience might have been more sympathetic.
I support the concept of euthanasia. I haven't put together a living will yet (but at some point I'll have to get around to doing it). And I'm sure that part of it is that I don't want to live in a permanent vegetative state. I supported Terry Schiavo's husband in his quest to end his wife's life with dignity as he believed that was her wishes. The paralells are there between Maggie Fitzgerald and Terry Schiavo, except one had not lapsed into a coma just yet.
The movie is really composed three acts. The first act sets establishes Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood), a professional trainer, would be willing to train a "girlie." The second part details the career of said girlie, Maggie Fitzgerald (Hillary Swank), a 31 year old woman from a white trash background, from the time she starts training with Frankie until her final fight. [SPOILER] The final part of the story deals with her paralyzation and eventual death via euthanasia. [/SPOILER]
Separated from its politics, the movie is close to a masterpiece. The actors do a wonderful job realizing their characters. Hillary Swank does a great job with Maggie, showing her determination and how her emotions slip out from the fissures in the tough persona she's adopted. Clint Eastwood's Frankie Dunn starts the picture as a decendent from his tough trainers in pulp like Heartbreak Ridge. By the end of the picture, his character has emerged as a more three dimensional character with real emotional conflict. Morgan Freeman plays Eddie Dupree, a former boxer and friend of Frankie, as an extension of Red from Shawshank Redemption. The script does a good job at letting these tough characters emerge from their stereotypes in a believable way.
But it is tough to look at a movie that contains such an explosive political element as just a movie. While the characterization of the mentally-challenged boxer can't have helped relations with the disabled community, Million Dollar Baby has drawn its ire for endorsing euthanasia. At one point, Maggie tells Frankie that she wants to die before she can't remember the crowds cheering her name. While I can see how disability advocates can look at this as a condemnation of a paralyzed person's life as being not worth living, I can also see how this character in this situation could respond to her circumstances by perferring a quick death to a long lingering one. I think that if the writer had given the impression that the events surrounding her downward spiral took a longer time that the audience might have been more sympathetic.
I support the concept of euthanasia. I haven't put together a living will yet (but at some point I'll have to get around to doing it). And I'm sure that part of it is that I don't want to live in a permanent vegetative state. I supported Terry Schiavo's husband in his quest to end his wife's life with dignity as he believed that was her wishes. The paralells are there between Maggie Fitzgerald and Terry Schiavo, except one had not lapsed into a coma just yet.
posted by mypetrock at 9:11 AM
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