In Clint Eastwood’s latest movie, “Million Dollar Baby,” the Hollywood legend plays a grizzled, taciturn boxing trainer who takes on the biggest challenge of his life: transforming a poor, physically unassuming waitress into a legitimate and learned fighter.
The pupil, played by Hilary Swank, lives in dire straits; in one scene she surreptitiously places part of her customer’s unfinished meal in her pocket for later consumption. Her life only retains some sort of meaning when she straps on a pair of boxing gloves. Armed with discipline and an unrelenting disposition, Swank eventually persuades Eastwood to take her on as a student. After rigorous training, Swank and Eastwood find themselves embarking on a journey to stardom, as Swank slugs opponent after opponent.
However, as quick as her meteoric rise to the zenith of the boxing world is, her demise is as dramatic and instantaneous. Dealt a sucker punch to the head, Swank is gruesomely paralyzed after hitting her head on a wooden stool.
The latter part of the movie painstakingly shows how physically debilitated the once-muscular Swank becomes. Unable to walk or breathe on her own, Swank is left hospitalized for life.
Cognizant of her physical and mental state, Swank asks her trainer for one last favor: to assist her in peacefully ending her life.
“Million Dollar Baby” is a poignant, emotional and important film. However, one thing this film is not is a sympathetic medium for assisted suicide.
According to Eastwood, “The film is supposed to make you think about the precariousness of life and how we handle it,” he said. “How the character handles it is certainly different than how I might handle it if I were in that position in real life. Every story is a ‘what if.'”
“Million Dollar Baby” effectively shows the agony and suffering a high-level athlete goes through after losing basic physical movements that we take for granted. The movie vividly depicts the circumstances surrounding an individual’s decision of whether or not to end her life. Indeed, it gives life to the thoughts of mortality that probably plague all quadriplegics as they learn to cope with their disabilities.
The film does not advocate for every single quadriplegic to consult with a doctor and request assisted suicide. It does not condemn every single quadriplegic to a life of horror and meaninglessness. It merely tells the single story of a single individual who makes an individual choice for herself.
And yet, cultural conservatives have decided to use this movie as a catapult for attack. Conservative pundits Michael Medved, Rush Limbaugh and Debbie Schlussel have all criticized the film on television, the radio and on the Internet. Schlussel went so far as to say that the movie was “Hollywood’s best political propaganda of the year, more effective than ‘Fahrenheit 9/11′” and “a left-wing diatribe.” This statement is most ironic considering Eastwood was once a Republican mayor of Carmel, Calif.
While these commentators have blasted the film for promoting a culture of death and advocating an act illegal in all states but one, they have failed to realize just what this movie is: a movie. It is a piece of art with which one does not have to necessarily agree with. It is a unique take on an individual’s situation.
As film critic Roger Ebert wrote Saturday, “The characters in movies do not always do what we would do. That is their right. It is our right to disagree with them. What kind of movies would there be if everyone in them had to do what we thought they should do?”
It seems as if conservative ideologues, bolstered by President Bush’s avowal to foster moral values throughout America, have appointed themselves the country’s cultural judges. Sadly, they have become the country’s jesters as they demonize and “out” Spongebob Squarepants and the Teletubbies. It’s unfortunate that they can’t recognize what “Million Dollar Baby” really is: a great film.
Josh Moskowitz ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in political science and journalism.
