map_of_the_world (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
map_of_the_world) wrote2008-01-04 04:58 am
map_of_the_world) wrote2008-01-04 04:58 am
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Film thoughts: Million Dollar Baby
I liked this film, it was good and solid and I like Hillary swank, but it wasn't really a great film, I would watch it again but it didn't really excite me. It did contain rather too many cliches, such as the "white trash"/working class person who beats the odds and succeeds through sheer grit and holding to a dream, the woman who wants to succeed in a mans world and the only person who can possibly help her do that is a cynical embittered taciturn old man, and the wise black man character.
the relationship between the two characters was kind of a cliche as well, being a substitute/surrogate father daughter relationship, but maybe it was more an archetype than a cliche and I personaly got quite a lot out of it.
It did make me think anyway. I don't really understand boxing, I don't understand why people want to do it, to deliberately hurt other people and lay themselves open to being hurt, and I'm not all "well women should be able to box too!" because I don't really think anyone should be boxing. My feminism is wrapped up with pacifism and for the same reason I don't think the feminist movement should be fighting for a woman's right to fight on the front line but should be fighting for a world where nobody has to be on the front line
anyway the end of the film really made me think a lot
In her last fight after it has ended her opponent punches her when she is not looking and she goes down and breaks her neck so badly that she is totally paralysed and cant even breathe for herself. And basically the last quarter of the film is about how the two main protagonists deal with that. I was watching it with Paul and I said "If that happened to me would you read to me" and he said probably but I think I'd persuade you to end it" and we were talking about that, we have an agreement with each other that if anything does happen where we end up comatose then the other one will end it, because I cant think of anything worse than being trapped in a body and not being able to communicate or interact with the world, that thought terrifies me. But If I broke my neck and was still conscious, I'm not sure. I think maybe if I broke it as badly as she did where I couldn't move anything I might, but lots of people who break their necks are not that badly impaired, often they can move their heads and their arms slightly, If I could operate a wheel chair and a computer I think I would be okay, you can get things that go on your head or your arms that mean you can type and stuff, so If I could do that I could still, listen to the radio, read, interact on line, write and stuff.
She asked him to kill her and he refused, but she bit her tongue twice in an effort to die and I think if someone I loved wanted to go that badly I would help them. She ended up sedated all the time so she couldn't do it again which is definitely no life, In the end he gave her an injection that killed her
the relationship between the two characters was kind of a cliche as well, being a substitute/surrogate father daughter relationship, but maybe it was more an archetype than a cliche and I personaly got quite a lot out of it.
It did make me think anyway. I don't really understand boxing, I don't understand why people want to do it, to deliberately hurt other people and lay themselves open to being hurt, and I'm not all "well women should be able to box too!" because I don't really think anyone should be boxing. My feminism is wrapped up with pacifism and for the same reason I don't think the feminist movement should be fighting for a woman's right to fight on the front line but should be fighting for a world where nobody has to be on the front line
anyway the end of the film really made me think a lot
In her last fight after it has ended her opponent punches her when she is not looking and she goes down and breaks her neck so badly that she is totally paralysed and cant even breathe for herself. And basically the last quarter of the film is about how the two main protagonists deal with that. I was watching it with Paul and I said "If that happened to me would you read to me" and he said probably but I think I'd persuade you to end it" and we were talking about that, we have an agreement with each other that if anything does happen where we end up comatose then the other one will end it, because I cant think of anything worse than being trapped in a body and not being able to communicate or interact with the world, that thought terrifies me. But If I broke my neck and was still conscious, I'm not sure. I think maybe if I broke it as badly as she did where I couldn't move anything I might, but lots of people who break their necks are not that badly impaired, often they can move their heads and their arms slightly, If I could operate a wheel chair and a computer I think I would be okay, you can get things that go on your head or your arms that mean you can type and stuff, so If I could do that I could still, listen to the radio, read, interact on line, write and stuff.
She asked him to kill her and he refused, but she bit her tongue twice in an effort to die and I think if someone I loved wanted to go that badly I would help them. She ended up sedated all the time so she couldn't do it again which is definitely no life, In the end he gave her an injection that killed her