Spoiler for "Million Dollar Baby" please.

[Bella]

Can someone PM me with a quick synopsis of "Million Dollar Baby" - I overheard a conversation today at work about the film promoting suicide (and how bad that is for society) and now I want to know what the movie was about without having to waste $$ seeing it.

[livius drusus]

Who needs PM when we've got spoiler tags? I haven't seen the movie, but I heard on NPR yesterday that

it's the rags to riches story of a scrappy girl (Hillary Swank) who makes it big in boxing thanks to the aid of a curmudgeonly coach (Clint Eastwood) then somehow becomes a quadriplegic and asks her coach to help her die. He mulls it over and says yes. She dies with his help. End of movie.

[The Lone Ranger]

I wouldn't exactly call it a pro-suicide movie, but there are some who're livid that Hillary Swank's character (Maggie) chooses to commit suicide, and that Clint Eastwood's character (Frankie) ultimate decides to help her. The movie certainly suggests that people should be able to choose to live (or die) on their own terms, a notion that apparently upsets some. It's not like the movie suggests that we should be going around killing quadraplegics -- Maggie desperately wants to die, and she has very good reason.

Maggie suffers an injury in the ring that leaves her paralyzed from the neck down. For someone who'd been a professional athelete, this is an unbearable situation, and she begs Frankie to help her die. He, being a (more or less) good Catholic, refuses. His priest tells him that to help her commit suicide would be murder -- the worst sin he could commit.

Over time, Maggie's condition deteriorates. She suffers circulatory problems and one of her legs is amputated. The doctors make it clear that her condition will continue to deteriorate, and it's only a matter of time 'til she'll die.

By this time, she's so desperate to die while she still has some dignity left that she tries to commit suicide by biting her tongue. Hospital personnel revive her, and she promptly does it again. To keep her from committing suicide, the doctors drug her up so that she's barely conscious even when awake.

Frankie can't stand to see her in this state. By now, the young woman whom he'd come to think of as his daughter is essentially gone. She's kept too drugged up to have any real awareness of the world around her, and her body is dying little by little. He gives her a lethal injection and leaves, never to be seen again.

Personally, I think he did the right thing.


My life is mine, dangit, and if I were in a position where my only choices were a quick and merciful death or a slow and grossly undignified death, the choice seems starkly clear to me. I'd be royally teed-off if somebody tried to say that I didn't have the right to end my life under those circumstances.

Cheers,

Michael

[Bella]

Ah ha. Thank you very much. Sounds pretty shitty to me.

[Crumb]

It won, for whatever that is worth... :shrug:

[SharonDee]

I was just glad that "The Aviator" didn't win. I don't know why, really, since I didn't see it. Maybe I dislike Dicaprio that much. :shrug:

[Crumb]

He is becoming a better actor. He was good in Catch me if you can, or so I thought.

[beyelzu]

I dont understand the dicaprio hate, he has been a fine actor since what's eating gilbert grape.

[Dingfod]

Rotten Tomatoes (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/aviator/) has an 89% favorable rating for The Aviator. That's in the stratosphere, so to speak. I haven't seen it, but I was impressed with DiCaprio in Catch Me If You Can and look forward to seeing it.

[Ensign Steve]

Wow, I am so glad I read those spoilers before I wasted my time with that movie. No wonder it won, the Academy eats that shit up.

Rent Girlfight, y'all! ;)