Million Dollar Baby
So I watched Million Dollar Baby this Christmas Eve (hey, it's Christmas now, actually). I liked it, overall. The acting was great, the story was gripping (if depressing), and it was a good movie. But I'd like to say more. But first off, if you haven't seen it, stop reading right now, because there's a plot twist in the movie you deserve to see for yourself.
So go on now. Go watch it if you wanna read the rest.
Go ahead.
Still here?
So let's talk about the ending. Going in, I was aware of some twist in the movie which had created controversy among Christians/conservatives. After watching then reading up on the movie, as is my custom (I check IMDB, Wikipedia, and Plugged In), I got to hear about the controversy directly. It turns out that several groups, including ones excluding religion, had a problem with the movie. But, for once, I found myself having a problem with the objection raised by my brothers in Christ.
The objection is obvious: the movie ends with euthanasia. Euthanasia is wrong. The movie paints the scene so that we are sympathetic to the act, such that the act seems justified and, if not right, then at least blameless. Hence the controversy. But you know, I disagree. Because the movie was not about euthanasia, about giving up. If this had been real life, where things tend to be more practical and real and less easily brushed away with dramatic, timely speeches, then I would have certainly disagreed with what had happened. I could go on explaining why, but I'm not interested in defending my anti-euthanasia stance. I'm just defending the movie.
Like I said, it's not about morality, it's about characters. It's about a girl living her dream, and a broken old man rising above himself to do something right. Perhaps they both failed with their final decision. But I don't see it that way. I just see a story, and the decisions the characters made should not be taken as personal recommendations to us. If the movie had been trying to convince us about the supposed benefits of euthanasia, it could've, and would've, done a much more thorough job. At the end of it, I found myself questioning not whether it was the right thing to do, but what its necessity (for in the fictional world presented by the movie, it was necessary) meant to me, and more importantly, to the characters.
Clint Eastwood's character, at the end, is presented as a character who had changed for the better. I don't think the movie is saying it's because he freed her from her suffering. I think it's saying it's because he helped her fulfill her life through an act of self-sacrifice (by helping her "get her shot", not by killing her), and that the events that followed were simply tests of that.
But like I said, while the climax involves euthanasia, this isn't a movie about euthanasia. That wasn't the point. It was a story about characters, dreams, life, and death. Whether the characters made the right decision in the end is irrelevant. They aren't real. What's relevant is the feelings the movie evokes within us.
I found myself comparing this drama to another drama I recently decided to give 5 stars to, the Shawshank Redemption. I decided not to give Million Dollar Baby the same score, though I was hard pressed to find anything wrong with it. But it's a dark movie, a depressing movie, and while I don't mind sad endings from time to time, I didn't feel this movie had enough redemption. As a story, which is the basis of half my score for any movie, regardless of genre or content, I cannot truly reward that. I still believe that one can celebrate life without sinking entirely into despair. While Million Dollar Baby is not without hope, it is hiding just a little too well.
Rating: 9/10
So go on now. Go watch it if you wanna read the rest.
Go ahead.
Still here?
So let's talk about the ending. Going in, I was aware of some twist in the movie which had created controversy among Christians/conservatives. After watching then reading up on the movie, as is my custom (I check IMDB, Wikipedia, and Plugged In), I got to hear about the controversy directly. It turns out that several groups, including ones excluding religion, had a problem with the movie. But, for once, I found myself having a problem with the objection raised by my brothers in Christ.
The objection is obvious: the movie ends with euthanasia. Euthanasia is wrong. The movie paints the scene so that we are sympathetic to the act, such that the act seems justified and, if not right, then at least blameless. Hence the controversy. But you know, I disagree. Because the movie was not about euthanasia, about giving up. If this had been real life, where things tend to be more practical and real and less easily brushed away with dramatic, timely speeches, then I would have certainly disagreed with what had happened. I could go on explaining why, but I'm not interested in defending my anti-euthanasia stance. I'm just defending the movie.
Like I said, it's not about morality, it's about characters. It's about a girl living her dream, and a broken old man rising above himself to do something right. Perhaps they both failed with their final decision. But I don't see it that way. I just see a story, and the decisions the characters made should not be taken as personal recommendations to us. If the movie had been trying to convince us about the supposed benefits of euthanasia, it could've, and would've, done a much more thorough job. At the end of it, I found myself questioning not whether it was the right thing to do, but what its necessity (for in the fictional world presented by the movie, it was necessary) meant to me, and more importantly, to the characters.
Clint Eastwood's character, at the end, is presented as a character who had changed for the better. I don't think the movie is saying it's because he freed her from her suffering. I think it's saying it's because he helped her fulfill her life through an act of self-sacrifice (by helping her "get her shot", not by killing her), and that the events that followed were simply tests of that.
But like I said, while the climax involves euthanasia, this isn't a movie about euthanasia. That wasn't the point. It was a story about characters, dreams, life, and death. Whether the characters made the right decision in the end is irrelevant. They aren't real. What's relevant is the feelings the movie evokes within us.
I found myself comparing this drama to another drama I recently decided to give 5 stars to, the Shawshank Redemption. I decided not to give Million Dollar Baby the same score, though I was hard pressed to find anything wrong with it. But it's a dark movie, a depressing movie, and while I don't mind sad endings from time to time, I didn't feel this movie had enough redemption. As a story, which is the basis of half my score for any movie, regardless of genre or content, I cannot truly reward that. I still believe that one can celebrate life without sinking entirely into despair. While Million Dollar Baby is not without hope, it is hiding just a little too well.
Rating: 9/10
posted by Mike at 12:38 AM
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