Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

million dollar baby - the movie (Spoilers Inside)

MACDRIVE

MACDRIVE

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Feb 17, 2006
1,695
3
Clovis, California
Please tell me this movie was not based on a true story. This is the most depressing, saddest movie I've ever seen. Why did that stupid wooden stool have to be there? :mad:

I kept asking myself while watching the last part of the movie: "she's going to heal her neck and then go on to win another fight, right?" It never happened. :(
 
Wiki makes no mention of it being a true story, and I don't recall it being said in the movie or anything. But you're right- it was a very sad movie (but a great one).
 
Man, that is a fantastic movie, albeit really depressing. Maybe you should throw up a "spoiler alert" up there, or something, in case people haven't seen it yet.
 
MACDRIVE said:
Please tell me this movie was not based on a true story. This is the most depressing, saddest movie I've ever seen. Why did that stupid wooden stool have to be there? :mad:
Click to expand...
Not sure if the boxing story was based on a real person, but the end-of-life care was totally unrealistic and nothing like what happens in real life, and unfortunately served to reinforce a misconception about how much control you have at the end of life. At any U.S. hospital today, the boxer would've been given the choice of being made comfortable, not forced to stay on machines as in the movie. The only time you see people being kept alive like that against their will is by overzealous family members, and ultimately even they can be overruled by the patient if it is obvious they want something different.

Dave
 
i only saw the last 15 minutes or so of the movie, it was pretty sad and depressing though. there was no boxing in that part, but the whole ending was just depressing.
 
That's a great movie because it made me realize that if they can make a movie about a reanimated corpse's relationship with a boxing horse, they can make a movie about anything. :p
 
Dave00 said:
Not sure if the boxing story was based on a real person, but the end-of-life care was totally unrealistic and nothing like what happens in real life, and unfortunately served to reinforce a misconception about how much control you have at the end of life. At any U.S. hospital today, the boxer would've been given the choice of being made comfortable, not forced to stay on machines as in the movie. The only time you see people being kept alive like that against their will is by overzealous family members, and ultimately even they can be overruled by the patient if it is obvious they want something different.
Click to expand...

What makes you say that? There's probably a lot of people who'd rather be dead than in a situation like that (including myself) and unfortunately you can't just opt for euthanasia. Sometimes there's just no dignified way to die when you're subject to the ethics of others.

Anyway, it was a good movie in that it was well acted and had a substantial plot, albeit very depressing. I'd never watch it again.

If I want to go for movies like that I found Leaving Las Vegas to be a rather good one.
 
iBlue said:
What makes you say that? There's probably a lot of people who'd rather be dead than in a situation like that (including myself) and unfortunately you can't just opt for euthanasia. Sometimes there's just no dignified way to die when you're subject to the ethics of others.

Anyway, it was a good movie in that it was well acted and had a substantial plot, albeit very depressing. I'd never watch it again.

If I want to go for movies like that I found Leaving Las Vegas to be a rather good one.
Click to expand...

Leaving Las Vegas is an excellent film. It has a sad ending but the acting more than makes up for that.
 
MongoTheGeek said:
How old does something have to be to no longer need spoiler warnings. For instance would this be okay in clear text? "Rosebud" is a sleigh:confused:
Click to expand...

It's also an analogy for his lost youth and was reportedly the nickname that William Randolph Hearst had for his girlfriend's...erm..."newspaper folds".
 
TheAnswer said:
It's also an analogy for his lost youth and was reportedly the nickname that William Randolph Hearst had for his girlfriend's...erm..."newspaper folds".
Click to expand...

:) a quick google seems to say its the man in the canoe. I am more used to hearing it refer to something else though. I know its a metaphor for his lost innocence. I saw something on the web that says that rosebud may also be a reference to his mother.

I like to think though that the sleigh metaphor though has connotations that he was just along for the ride as opposed to the obsessive control he placed on everything around him later in life. It was a longing for not having to control everything and to relax and let it happen.
 
TheAnswer said:
I think the mother idea takes it a little far...although I guess climbing back into the womb would be the ultimate "reclaiming" of lost youth.:eek:
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was getting a lot of Ick along those lines from Heros tonight.

TheAnswer said:
I like the "along for the ride" take on it, as it's something that never once has come up in discussions with fellow film students.
Click to expand...

Feel free to claim that one as your own.
 
<white> Yeah yeah yeah </white>

Some of us prefer to watch our movies when they come off of the Hot 100 rack at the rental store and drop to a reasonable rental price. And I don't appreciate someone else deciding that 'everybody must have seen it by now' and wrecking it for me if I should ever decide to rent it.

I appreciate your opinion of the movie in general, which will help me decide whether to rent. But I don't want to read "It all turned out to be a dream" or "Were you surprised that it was the detective who was the killer all along?" 'coz you can't forget it once read.

This goes equally for Season 2 of Grey's Anatomy, Season 1 of MI-5, Season 2 of NCIS, Season 3 of Six Feet Under, any Battlestar Galactica and any other 5 year old TV series that everybody else has already watched too.
 
Don't read my post if you are concerned about spoilers...although, if you have read this thread this far you are probably too late.

This is actually the second forum I have seen a post about this movie come up on in the last week...weird.

From what I remember about the movie, and I haven't seen it in over a year, her whole life has been a fight: crappy family, Eastwood wouldn't train her, underdog, blah blah blah, the point is that her character fights through all of this adversity and when she breaks her neck she suddenly wants to give up.

It just didn't seem consistent for the character and I fully expected her to fight through that and acheive something along the lines of what Christopher Reeves did in real life.

It was a good movie, the ending just didn't seem to fit.
 
iBlue said:
What makes you say that? There's probably a lot of people who'd rather be dead than in a situation like that (including myself) and unfortunately you can't just opt for euthanasia. Sometimes there's just no dignified way to die when you're subject to the ethics of others.
Click to expand...
What makes me say that is that I've taken care of dozens of people through the dying process, and the patients have much more control over the process than was depicted in the movie. If it were real life, the boxer would have had the opportunity to decline further care, at which point the ventilator would have been removed, and the patient allowed to die comfortably with adequate pain and anxiety control. Note, this is very different than euthanasia, where the person is killed, rather than allowed to die. Unfortunately, the issue is often confused in the media, and made worse by movies like this one, which play on people's fear of not being allowed to refuse care.
 
Very surprised no one has mentioned this: the movie is based on a short story by F.X. Toole (or is it O'Toole? can't remember off the top of my head).

I've read the short story, and it's a great story. Not seen the movie so I don't know what they changed, but from reading here it looks like the ending was the same.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back