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"Million Dollar Baby’s" Multi-Million Dollar Rip-Off
FrontPageMagazine.com ^ | 1/14/04 | Debbie Schlussel

Posted on 01/14/2005 12:49:16 AM PST by kattracks

"Million Dollar Baby” will win the Academy Awards. 

Not because it’s the Best Picture.  But because it’s Hollywood’s best political propaganda of the year.  More effective than “Fahrenheit 911.”

Think “Baby” is about Rocky in a sports-bra—as it’s being marketed?  You’ve fallen for the “Million Dollar” lie.  What it’s really about, has nothing to do with Rocky Balboa or boxing.  That’s just the cover story to suck movie-goers in for a nefarious message.

“Baby”—which has critics gushing all over each other—is a two-hour, twenty-minute exercise in subtle and then not-so-subtle left-wing diatribe. 

If you plan to see the movie and don’t want to read a spoiler, stop here.

If you want to know the truth and save your ten bucks, keep reading.

“Million Dollar Baby” will win the Oscar because it supports killing the handicapped, literally putting their lights out.

It features legendary Dirty Harry, Clint Eastwood, as its director and star.  For roughly the first half, viewers are tricked – thinking they are watching a movie about a champion boxer in the making, who just happens to be female. 

Even those who find women’s sports to be freakish sideshows of little interest, are rooting for Maggie Fitzgerald (Hillary Swank) to overcome her trailer-

trash background and become women’s Welterweight champion of the world.

But they’ve been defrauded, manipulated into what appears to be “The Champ” with estrogen, but is really a promotional ad for the Netherland’s euthanasia policy.  Movie critics—most of whom are complicit in this deception—only hint at this “unexpected, surprise twist.”

“Baby” begins with the hillbilly Maggie trying to learn boxing and get gym-owner/trainer/manager Frankie (Eastwood) to train her.  At first, he resists, saying he doesn’t train girls.  “Women boxing—that’s a freak show, and freaks are in.  I’m sure you’ll find someone else to train you,” he tells her.  Besides, at 31, she’s too old to become a great boxer.

But then, he loses his champion boxer to another boxing manager, and he takes Maggie on.  Soon, she’s winning fights all over the place, with instant knock-outs, and Frank and Maggie develop a surrogate-father/daughter relationship.  Maggie’s so good she’s in the Women’s Welterweight championship fight in Vegas with a million-dollar pot to split.

Maggie, on the verge of winning the fight, gets blindsided and knocked-out cold.  She hits her head so hard on the stool in the corner of the ring, she’s knocked unconscious.

And that’s where we learn what this movie is really about.  Maggie is paralyzed, a quadriplegic who loses a leg to infection – of sound mind, but almost a vegetable.  And since she can’t fight—she can’t even move—the proverbial “her life isn’t worth living” message is hammered home. 

To make the message as black and white as possible, Maggie isn’t just a hillbilly with no future outside boxing.  She’s from a broken home, with family members in prison, a mother defrauding welfare and Medicaid, and the standard trailerhome.  Her abusive family is only after Maggie’s money.  They don’t care about her, nor does anyone in the world.  So, as a quadriplegic, her life isn’t worth living.

Then there’s the religion excuse.  Maggie is eventually euthanized (a sanitized word for “murdered”) by trainer/surrogate-father Frankie.  A devout, but questioning, Catholic, he attends mass every day.  He is no common sinner without a conscience.  He’s the perfect Hollywood murderer of the weak – a whole lot more sympathetic than real-life mercy killers a la Dr. Kevorkian.

Janitors and waitresses die every day, thinking “I never got my shot,” Frankie is told by  right-hand man, former boxer Eddie (Morgan Freeman).  It’s better for Maggie to die now, having made it to such a high point in her life—the Women’s Welterweight title fight—than for her to face a life of anti-climactic paralysis.  Since she's only from a trailer park anyway, her life is expendable.

Sickening.

“Baby’s” version of euthanasia seems honorable and heroic—a sort of noblesse oblige for the 2000s.  But imagine if the real-life euthanized, victims of the Nazis and the Netherlands, were the “Million Dollar Babies” instead of a pathetic, washed up female boxer from the trailer park.

The Nazis victims didn’t just include six million Jews.  They murdered the handicapped and infirm, some as handicapped as “Baby’s” Maggie.  The handicapped, a burden on society and flaw in the master race, weren’t entitled to live, the Nazis posited.  That disturbing message is more palatable when the victim is “Baby’s” broken female Rocky with no future, and a likeable religious father-figure is the euthanasia-committing hero. 

Then there’s today’s Netherlands.  The country that values its legalized prostitutes and drugs has little value for human life. 

Anyone can be murdered by their doctors at the request of family members.  There is no requirement the patient’s condition be terminal or the suffering be physical.  Thousands of innocents are euthanized each year at the request of greedy or neglectful spouses and family.  The slippery slope has begun. 

Why can’t Warner Brothers—“Baby’s” distributor—say what the movie’s really about, glorifying euthanasia?  Maybe it has something to do with the fact that no-one wants to go see a depressing movie with such stark politicking.  Americans want to see positive movies, not be exploited.  They think they’re going to see one here.  But they’ve been duped. “Million Dollar Baby” is nothing more than a multi-million dollar fraud. 

Sorry, Dirty Harry.  This time, you didn’t make my day.



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: euthanasia; hollywoodleft; milliondollarbaby; moviereview
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1 posted on 01/14/2005 12:49:16 AM PST by kattracks
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To: kattracks

Thanks for the"warning"but I definitely WILL see "Baby".Why?Oh,just call me the rebellious type who hates PC whether it comes from the right or the left.
I will use my OWN critical faculties to make my OWN judgements.Conservatives ranted so much about Fahrenheit 9-11 that I went to see it BECAUSE it stirred up such a storm.Otherwise,I would have skipped it completely.BTW,I found it blatantly manipulative and biased but I wanted to see for myself.
Same with when the liberals made big stinks about movies like Passion of the Christ,Birth of a Nation or Death Wish.Hell,how dare they try to tell me these movies are "bad"for me?I have a mind of my own and am no one's blind robot.


2 posted on 01/14/2005 12:59:33 AM PST by Riverman94610
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To: kattracks

Hilary Swank? Wasn't she in that movie the abortion enthusiasts raved about, 'Cider House Rules'? Man, she is some sick animal - - really loves projects that promote legalized murder.


3 posted on 01/14/2005 1:07:11 AM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: Riverman94610
Hell,how dare they try to tell me these movies are "bad"for me?I have a mind of my own and am no one's blind robot.

I can't seem to find the section in this article which is telling anyone that this movie is bad for them.

IMO the article is issuing a warning so that people are not lead to think it is something it is not.

4 posted on 01/14/2005 1:17:06 AM PST by kattracks
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To: Lancey Howard

Don't forget that Swank was in "Boys Don't Cry," a movie where she seduces another girl by pretending to be a boy.

LEFTIST SPOILER ALERT - DON'T READ FURTHER IF YOU PLAN ON SEEING THE MOVIE.











The 'homophobes' kill her.


5 posted on 01/14/2005 1:17:50 AM PST by peyton randolph (CAIR supports TROP terrorists)
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To: kattracks
IMO the article is issuing a warning so that people are not lead to think it is something it is not.

Reminds me of when Hollywood's critics intentionally covered up the "secret" in The Crying Game so that the homo agenda could be pushed on the unwary.

6 posted on 01/14/2005 1:19:17 AM PST by peyton randolph (CAIR supports TROP terrorists)
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To: Riverman94610
Conservatives ranted so much about Fahrenheit 9-11 that I went to see it BECAUSE it stirred up such a storm.Otherwise,I would have skipped it completely.BTW,I found it blatantly manipulative and biased but I wanted to see for myself.

So you wasted two hours of your life, and found out that everyone was right. Michael Moore thanks you for making him what he i$ today.

Same with when the liberals made big stinks about movies like Passion of the Christ,Birth of a Nation or Death Wish.Hell,how dare they try to tell me these movies are "bad"for me?I have a mind of my own and am no one's blind robot.

Cool your jets, Ayn Rand -- no one is 'daring to tell you the movie is "bad" for you.' Like Schlussel accurately said, this picture is NOT what it purports to be in the advertisements. I caught wind of the true focus of this story before I had heard or seen the ads, so I was too informed to be deceived, but Warner Bros. sure wants you to think that you're paying to see a movie about boxing when, in fact, it has thematic elements of the execrable Boxing Helena.

7 posted on 01/14/2005 1:38:13 AM PST by L.N. Smithee (Hey, Senator Leahy -- Go BORK Yourself!)
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To: Riverman94610

You said: how dare they try to tell me these movies are "bad"for me?I have a mind of my own and am no one's blind robot.

But before that you said: Conservatives ranted so much about Fahrenheit 9-11 that I went to see it BECAUSE it stirred up such a storm.Otherwise,I would have skipped it completely.

Looks to me like they have made up your mind like a blind robot.


8 posted on 01/14/2005 1:40:39 AM PST by garylmoore (God Bless you W, you have prevailed.)
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To: Lancey Howard

The agenda must be promoted.....


9 posted on 01/14/2005 3:41:00 AM PST by OldFriend (PRAY FOR MAJ. TAMMY DUCKWORTH)
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To: peyton randolph
Don't forget that Swank was in "Boys Don't Cry," a movie where she seduces another girl by pretending to be a boy.

That's why she's known as Hank Swank around our house.

10 posted on 01/14/2005 4:13:51 AM PST by IrishGOP
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To: Riverman94610
I will use my OWN critical faculties to make my OWN judgements.

You sure you're in the right place? ;)

11 posted on 01/14/2005 4:19:34 AM PST by Wolfie
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To: kattracks

bump


12 posted on 01/14/2005 4:29:00 AM PST by lowbridge
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To: Riverman94610
You damn well better go see "Million Dollar Baby". It's GOOD for you to see it.

I'm giving you an direct order to go see that movie, you hear me? And dont you dare disobey me.

13 posted on 01/14/2005 4:48:52 AM PST by lowbridge
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To: kattracks

bump


14 posted on 01/14/2005 5:46:36 AM PST by lowbridge
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To: kattracks
I trust Eastwood and, if anything, I think his politics are a little right of center and so I will see the film.
From what I've read, the only element of the story that causes me a bit of concern is the depiction of Swank as having an almost stereotypical trailer trash background. Apparently, Swank's parents are right out of the movie Deliverance - but without the banjo's.
This was probably Eastwood's way of showing what motivated Swank in her attempt at a boxing career, but I'm afraid it may also have appealed to the liberal film critics sneering prejudices about red state residents and prompted them to give it such rave reviews.
We shall see.
15 posted on 01/14/2005 6:11:41 AM PST by finnigan2
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To: kattracks
Won't see it.

Women boxing? How silly. Bout as interesting as a male beauty pageant.

Euthanasia? Sounds like a fun time.
16 posted on 01/15/2005 2:55:09 PM PST by rcocean
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To: rcocean
"Euthanasia? Sounds like a fun time."

BTW, this is a sarcastic comment.

I like to enjoy myself at the movies, so I avoid movies about slavery, concentration camps, and liberal movies celebrating abortion or euthanasia.
17 posted on 01/15/2005 2:57:29 PM PST by rcocean
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To: All

Why watch a movie about swarmy chick boxer? Got nothing better to do with your time?


18 posted on 01/15/2005 3:06:30 PM PST by Afronaut (Press two for English.)
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To: kattracks

"“Million Dollar Baby” will win the Oscar because it supports killing the handicapped, literally putting their lights out."

My wife and I saw it last night. We didn't think it supported anything.

It is a strong drama, about a difficult question. In the movie, the act was done.

The movie didn't say that it was the "right" thing.


19 posted on 01/16/2005 6:38:53 PM PST by truth_seeker
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To: Lancey Howard
I saw "$MM Baby" today, and "Cider House Rules" was the first thing I thought of when the tear jerking started.
20 posted on 01/29/2005 5:57:11 PM PST by StACase
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