{"id":2953,"date":"2005-03-16T10:24:00","date_gmt":"2005-03-16T10:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/03\/million-dollar-baby-and-unforgiven-good-or-bad-it-doesnt-matter\/"},"modified":"2005-03-16T10:24:00","modified_gmt":"2005-03-16T10:24:00","slug":"million-dollar-baby-and-unforgiven-good-or-bad-it-doesnt-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/03\/million-dollar-baby-and-unforgiven-good-or-bad-it-doesnt-matter.html","title":{"rendered":"Million Dollar Baby and Unforgiven — good or bad, it doesn’t matter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I never did write a review, as such, of Million Dollar Baby<\/i>. However, I just finished writing an essay that looks at that film in the light of a couple of other recent Oscar winners that touch on euthanasia. (It\u2019s not really a \u201cspoiler\u201d any more that Clint Eastwood\u2019s film gets into that subject, is it?) And I really, really wish I had had more space to get into the parallels between Million Dollar Baby<\/i> and Eastwood\u2019s previous multiple Oscar winner, Unforgiven<\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thomas Hibbs<\/a> makes the point that the problem with Eastwood\u2019s newest film is not that it is specifically pro-euthanasia, per se<\/i> \u2014 I don\u2019t believe that it is, myself, although that probably depends on how closely you think we are supposed to identify with Frankie Dunn\u2019s (Eastwood) assertion that it is a \u201csin\u201d to let Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) live in her present condition \u2014 but rather, that it is broadly nihilistic. Hibbs, who has written a fantastic book<\/a> on nihilism in popular culture, says the key question of this film (and Eastwood\u2019s previous movie, Mystic River<\/i>) is, \u201cWhat if God does not exist?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I think there is just a wee bit of wriggle room in Million Dollar Baby<\/i> to permit a different reading of the film \u2014 in light of Frankie\u2019s hectoring questions about the relationships between the persons of the Trinity, I think it is particularly significant that Eddie \u201cScrap-Iron\u201d Dupris (Morgan Freeman) comes across like an intercessor, especially in his final scenes \u2014 but I am inclined to agree with Hibbs, not least because Eastwood posed the exact same question, and gave, if anything, an even more<\/i> nihilistic answer, in Unforgiven<\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Like a lot of westerns, <\/span>Unforgiven<\/i> uses a fair bit of Christ imagery, but it puts these allusions to the service of a nihilistic theme, rather than a theme of salvation. Bill Munny (Eastwood) is a former bounty hunter who left his life of killing behind when he married a decent woman; however, he\u2019s a widower now, and he needs money, so he takes a job killing two men who beat and cut a prostitute. At one point, Munny is beaten by the sheriff\u2019s men, and he remains unconscious for three days; his awakening is witnessed by the prostitute, and at the film\u2019s end, Munny proves that all the legends about him were true, as he takes out the sheriff and all his men in a shoot-out that is witnessed by a storyteller who will go on to spread Munny\u2019s vindictive gospel.<\/span><\/p>\n

But what is the point of all that symbolized death and resurrection? When Munny wakes up, he is haunted by a nightmare he had of his wife\u2019s rotting, worm-covered corpse; whereas Jesus, between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, descended into hell to defeat death, Munny witnesses the decomposition of the most heavenly person he has ever known. Hence, when Munny famously says that \u201cwe all have it coming,\u201d he is not referring to meaningful judgment, as many Christian interpreters of the film have supposed, but rather, to the meaningless death that awaits us all \u2014 good or bad, it doesn\u2019t matter, we\u2019ll all still die.<\/span><\/p>\n

Just as death was the central theme of <\/span>Unforgiven<\/i>, I think abandonment may be the central theme of <\/span>Million Dollar Baby<\/i> \u2014 Frankie is abandoned by his top fighter, Danger has been stuck in that city ever since his mother\u2019s boyfriend abandoned him there, Frankie and Eddie were abandoned by a manager in Mississippi, Frankie himself abandoned Eddie by hitching a ride out of there (until his \u201cconscience\u201d got the better of him and he walked two miles back), Frankie has been abandoned by his daughter, Frankie feels abandoned by God, and finally, Frankie is abandoned by Maggie, after which he abandons Eddie for good \u2014 and that the point of the film may be that it doesn\u2019t matter whether we have been good or bad to people, we will all still be abandoned.<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps that\u2019s a bit of a stretch, but for me this stark duality is particularly clear in the way Frankie relates to the two women in his life. It seems that Frankie did something to his daughter that he needs to be \u201cforgiven\u201d for. And it seems that Frankie sees an opportunity to redeem himself by being good to Maggie and making her dreams come true. But just as Frankie was abandoned by his daughter for being <\/span>bad<\/i> to her, so too he is abandoned by Maggie for being <\/span>good<\/i> to her \u2014 Maggie specifically says that she cannot go on living in her quadriplegic state, hooked up to a respirator, precisely <\/span>because<\/i> she has had all her dreams come true and she doesn\u2019t want that taken away from her.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, in one film, it doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re good or bad, you will still end up as food for the worms. And in the other film, it doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re good or bad, you will still be abandoned by the people you love. What this says about Eastwood\u2019s outlook on life \u2014 or about the Academy\u2019s, which heaped praise on both films \u2014 I couldn\u2019t say, but the parallels <\/span>are<\/i> interesting.<\/span><\/p>\n

Interestingly, both films also probe the place of honour and shame in human relationships \u2014 for an extensive treatment of this theme in <\/span>Unforgiven<\/i>, see the chapter on that film in Robert Jewett\u2019s <\/span>Saint Paul Returns to the Movies: Triumph over Shame<\/a><\/i>, while <\/span>Million Dollar Baby<\/i> asserts that the point of boxing is to gain respect for yourself and to take it away from others. Perhaps this has some bearing on that whole \u201cdying with dignity\u201d thing. But that\u2019s another topic for another day.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I never did write a review, as such, of Million Dollar Baby. However, I just finished writing an essay that looks at that film in the light of a couple of other recent Oscar winners that touch on euthanasia. (It\u2019s not really a \u201cspoiler\u201d any more that Clint Eastwood\u2019s film gets into that subject, is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nMillion Dollar Baby and Unforgiven -- good or bad, it doesn't matter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I never did write a review, as such, of Million Dollar Baby. 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