My Darling, My Blood: Million Dollar Baby

Intellectual Conservative ^ | 18 February 2005 | Nicholas Stix

[satchmodog9]

Took me a while and I had to get off my rear and get a photobucket account.

[madprof98]

Twain's point is that Huck WON'T go to hell, but is willing to do so if that's what convention tells him.

Yes, of course. It's an ironic critique of religiously based social convention--and really of religion itself, which Twain rejected. Strikingly original in its time, it's become a cliche now.

The point in Million Dollar Baby . . . is that Eastwood's character DOES doom himself by his religious belief . . .

Yeah. But since viewers know that the character's actions were morally right, that means the religious beliefs are wrong. Shades of Twain? Of course. Intentionally, I suppose.

[mrustow]

It's a movie. It's not an actual murder (which I believe euthanasia is, for all the FReeper busybodies). Saying one's against this movie for that is like the libs who think "feeling" something about an issue is equivalent to actually doing something about it. Same thing here.

See it, don't see it, no one else cares. But judge it as a movie, not as a pro-euthanasia screed, because if it were that there would be no drama in the decision--if he's doing something the movie's point of view says is a good, right thing, why is it shown as a dramatic decision?

"My dear, it's only a movie. Don't take it too seriously."--Alfred Hitchcock

These people hate movies. Heck, they don't even go to the movies or rent them. They just listen to Michael Medved, and scream bloody murder, when he tells them to. He hates movies too, but at least he watches them, before condemning them. But you're being much too subtle for them.

[Darkwolf377]

I think you've put it in a nutshell.

The very best, most moral movies are not sunny, happy "watch this guy do good!" movies but those showing people in moral dilemnas. The opposite of a dramatic situation is one in which the "right" choice is plain as day and the hero makes it without reservation and that's it.

The essence of drama is conflict. The best conflicts come from inside the hero--"man in conflict with himself". Movies about such conflicts that show someone making decisions that some people will agree with and others disagree with, in which the hero is conflicted even after arriving to his or her decision, are potentially the very best dramas.

I enjoyed much of Mystic River, but found the drama bungled by the end--SPOILERS AHEAD--he "right" choices are plain as day, and the climax is more about certain information not getting to certain characters, and the evidence that puts one character on the spot is pretty lame (the night one character gets killed just so happens to be the same night another character kills someone for the first time in his life? Uh, yeah...). Having said that, the feelings that come out as a result of Penn's suspicion and Robbins's decades-long anger are powerful.

END SPOILERS There's nothing like that in MDB. There is no way for the character to hide, he has to make a tough decision, and sacrifices his own moral code out of a complex love for another character. THAT is the essence of good drama.

People who change their moral points of view based on a freaking Hollywood fictional movie are probably too stupid to know how to vote, so I don't know what all the whining is about. As I wrote before, the same people probably have no problem watching Mel Gibson shoot up thirty people a movie and don't get all bent claiming a Lethal Weapon movie is "advertising murder".

[mrustow]

I think Eastwood may have gotten too much credit for Mystic River, due to his reputation, and the lack of serious, non-FX-dominated dramas that year.

If these yahoos get Eastwood some free publicity, maybe it will generate more interest and ticket sales. Then will their agitations have had some value, in spite of themselves.

[Irish Rose]

Thanks for your informative reply.

[mrustow]

I agree with Stix far more than I disagree with him but he digresses quite a bit from Million Dollar Baby. How can an actor be a life force as he would have you think of DeNiro? It is a silly appellation to hang on an actor. Clint Eastwood is an amazingly complex guy; I really admire him and his work but what people are saying about him and his latest film dismays me. It reminds me of what is simultaneously happening to Tom Wolfe. Too many people, against all they have ever seen, expect to see an artists' career as forever ascendent. Recently I saw a symposium on Wolfe's Charlotte Simmons on C-SPAN where some of the participants criticized him for conjuring up a fictitious take on modern college life. Perhaps Charlotte Simmons isn't the priceless gem that The Right Stuff was, or Million Dollar Baby isn't the work of art that Unforgiven was but why let that disturb your appreciation of what these two genuine auteurs are offering us? Yes, these two elderly men may have lost a few miles off their fastballs but they still possess enough finesse to get the batters out.

The Oscars can't be taken seriously. My only interest in them is to ogle the comely young actresses doing the red carpet bit.

I just reprinted your post, because I like what you had to say.

[AmishDude]

It's a drama. And a pretty good one, too.

I suppose you could say the same about Triumph of the Will.

[Non-Sequitur]

I suppose you could say the same about Triumph of the Will.

If you say so. I've never seen it.

[AmishDude]

There might be something you'd want to know about Triumph before you see it . . . but don't let me spoil it for you.

[mrustow]

RE: Catholic church supporting pro-euthanasia film Million Dollar Baby - just as this reviewer repeats the carnard that this is a movie about boxing and not about mercy killing - the Jesuit magazine America review of MDB couldn't praise it enough for its content and 'message'.

Pretty sick.

People who condemn things they know nothing about, have zero credibility.

[mrustow]

Was Dirty Harry a pro-shoot-people-in-the-head-with-a-44-magnum movie?

Dirty Harry was not promoted as a romantic comedy.

Eastwood didn't misrepresent his movie, you did.

[mrustow]

Some FReepers seem to confuse the quality and skills of acting, directing, writing, etc with the message of the film itself. I can be impressed with the quality of a film and recommend it even if the message is one that I totally disagree with. Films that make someone think about their own convictions are usually good films to see no matter what the message might be. So I have no problem with a film like MDB, because in my mind it validates my position that these characters made morally wrong decisions. On the other hand, a film like F911 was pure crap because it was based on lies and distortions of historical facts rather than opinion. While I can tolerate liberal opinions on the screen, I can't stomach deliberate lying.

Bump to that.

[mrustow]

I didn't know anything about the pro-euthanasia message in this film but made the conscious decision NOT to see it because any picture about women getting socked in the face for a living (even if it is willingly) does nothing for me.

Zip, zilch, nada!

I have no use for females boxing, either, but made an exception, because of who made the movie. But the movie has no pro-euthanasia message. Don't let the yahoos fool you. They didn't even see the movie.

Everyone should go see "Beyond the Sea". Now THAT is a good movie.

I heard that Kevin Spacey did his own singing, and even sounded like a reincarnation of Bobby Darin. It never occurred to me before the movie came out, but Spacey resembles Darin. I look forward to renting it.

[mrustow]

I wonder why that film hasn't gotten as much criticism.

Because it wasn't nominated for any Oscars?

[AmishDude]

No, Eastwood's film Dirty Harry was correctly promoted as a film exploring the moral and ethical conflicts torturing a hard-nosed police officer.

[mrustow]

Frankie: Oh, it's the same old, "one God-three God" thing.

Father Horvak: Frankie, most people figure out by kindergarten that it's about faith.

Frankie: Is it sort of like snap, crackle, and pop, all rolled into one big box?

Gotta love those straw man debates in movies. Ever see a shamrock, Clint? Next St. Patrick's day, ponder how he explained the Trinity to the Irish.

I look forward to reading your more intelligent remarks, after you have seen the flick. Meanwhile, I question your assumptions.

[NHResident]

Those who are ignorant of facts and events should keep their comments to themselves. Displays of ignorance only serve to embarrass the audience.

[mrustow]

You're comparing Clint Eastwood to Josef Goebbels?!
You're comparing Clint Eastwood to Josef Goebbels?!
You're comparing Clint Eastwood to Josef Goebbels?!

You don't know beans about either man -- or movies.

[mrustow]

Oops! I may have unconsciously plagiarized you!