Posted on 02/12/2005 11:28:06 AM PST by quidnunc
Clint Eastwood's ''Million Dollar Baby'' has scored seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. Alejandro Amenabar's ''The Sea Inside'' has come away with two, including Best Foreign Language Film. What links both movies? The message that it's kind to help a paralyzed person die.
To our knowledge, few critics have picked up on the films' shared ''right-to-die'' message. Had the plot been racial or homophobic killing, however, we'd be hearing an outcry (if the movie ever got made at all). Why the silence? We think it's because much of society believes it's the right thing to do, to grant the wish of any severely disabled person who asks us to help them die.
To us this exhibits an appalling lack of knowledge of severely disabled people, and an even more appalling lack of interest in questioning why films with this message are winning awards.
Amenabar's film is at least clear about things: It's the story of Ramon Sampedro, ''who fought for his right to end his life with dignity and respect.'' In Eastwood's film, it comes at us like a sucker-punch: Boxing sensation Maggie, paralyzed in a match gone horridly wrong, asks for and gets Frankie's (Eastwood) help ending her life.
Without going into detail — we know by now how much critics hate that — be forewarned that the ''peaceful death'' Frankie gives Maggie would be anything but. In reality, that sequence is a recipe for an agonizing death: You suffocate, while your heart feels ready to explode.
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(Excerpt) Read more at suntimes.com ...
It's a MOVIE. It's a MOVIE.
Nobody is KILLING. It's the choice of the patient. It's not like Eastwood's character takes it on himself to do this. She asks him, and after he puts himself through torture he does it because she's going to do it somehow. She has no use of her arms and legs so she bites her tongue so she can bleed to death. They save her and after he sees that he does it because she's just going to keep trying. Wow, you guys are so over the top.
There are many movies that are pro-life. Any movie that has a happy, pregnant woman is pro-life.
If somebody doesn't want to live in a situation like that, I don't see where it's anybody's business.
I couldn't agree more. I saw MDB and it is a great, great flick - very worthy of the hype. What I have really been worried about is that Shakespeare was a leftist operative transported back in time so the modern day English student could be corrupted (just being cynical). I did not feel any overt or covert social message in MDB. Those who say they won't see it because of one are missing out - truly.
Lando 
Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighting Troops
IT'S A STORY. Are you that weak that you can't even bear to see something that you disagree with? Isn't that the definition of being PC? Did you even see the movie? Clint Eastwood's character is vehemntly against it. But he knows this will of this girl and after she attempts to do it twice on her own, he realizes that she's going to do it with or without him. He loves her enough that he doesn't want to see her in the pain she is in, added with the fact she's trying to kill herself without arms or legs. NOW, why is she killing herself? Because she has nobody who cares about her except Clint's character. She knows he will spend the rest of his life sitting by her side and that she will be kept alive by strangers who don't love her, who just are paid to take care of her. I wouldn't want to live like that. Maybe I'm weak. So what? I should be punished because of that? My gosh, what about freedom?
A night at the movies costs more than pocket change these days.
For somebody to waste an evening and good folding money to be aggravated and/or depressed is not a sign of robust mental health.
Pray for W and Life
That's bull. You think Clint Eastwood is a lefty? You're wrong. It's a STORY. And it's a story that makes you think.
Pray for W and Our Troops
About the meaning of compassion. We have two different definitions.
As a disabled person, and I don't know what your disability is, but do you understand how someone who is a QUADRAPALEGIC would rather die? And your point about not always having the family to help is central to this movie. I'm curious what you think.
It's a movie!
This movie is a great movie because of this discussion. It did not aggravate me and I know what you mean about being aggravated at movies. It was so well done. But you don't have to go. Fine. But to make this a right vs. left fight, it's just not true. This is a movie about relationships. RELATIONSHIPS. And it's beautifully done.
For many of us there's nothing to discuss.
As the Dutch experience demonstrates, the right to die sooner or later becomes the duty to die, and from there it's just a short slide down the slippery slope to mercy killing.
There's a reason that the elderly and infirm in Holland have started carrying "don't kill me" cards.
The proposition that assisted suicide — or to call it by its rightful name, mercy killing — is something worthy of anything other than condemnation is a symptom of a sick society.
Suicide is an issue. It is reality. I do not fault anyone for making a movie that helps people face reality. Assisted suicide is something else. It is murder with the murderer looking for a pass because he really thought he was helping someone.
Is this something we as a society want to permit?
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