Emotional punch
The plot of Oscar-nominated Million Dollar Baby hits close to home
By Jay Cridlin
Published February 27, 2005
If you haven't seen the film Million Dollar Baby and don't already know the plot, I implore you to stop reading now. You'll thank me once you purchase your ticket.
Still here? Then you already know the film's gut-wrenching plot twist: A boxer, played by Hilary Swank, suffers a broken spinal cord during a boxing match and becomes a quadriplegic.
Ultimately, she asks her trainer, played by Clint Eastwood, to remove her breathing tube and let her die with dignity.
"I swear to God, it's committing a sin by doing it," Eastwood's character tearfully confesses to a priest, "But by keeping her alive, I'm killing her. How do I get around that?"
It's the most emotional movie scene I've seen this year, and I say it's Eastwood's finest moment as an actor. Yet I'd be lying if I said the film didn't also bring two words to mind: Terri Schiavo.
Since its release, Million Dollar Baby has racked up deserved acting and directing awards for Swank and Eastwood. Both are nominees at tonight's Academy Awards, and Baby could be named Best Picture. Roger Ebert called it "a masterpiece, pure and simple, deep and true."
The film has also sparked controversy among religious conservatives and right-to-die advocates for its treatment of the euthanasia debate. And nationally, no case better embodies that debate than Terri Schiavo's.
Pundits and Internet bloggers have made the connection between the Schiavo case and Million Dollar Baby. Rush Limbaugh and Michael Medved, among others, have railed against the film, arguing that it glorifies assisted suicide.
"It's disturbing that the movie is so very popular and acclaimed," said Diane Coleman, president of the Chicago-based disability advocacy group Not Dead Yet, which has protested outside screenings of Million Dollar Baby. "There's a lot of star power behind that "Better dead than disabled, and the kinder thing to do is kill you' message."
A valid point. In persuading her trainer to let her die, Swank's character compares herself to a suffering family dog her father once killed out of pity. One can only imagine how demeaning that metaphor might be to people who find themselves in similar circumstances.
There are plenty of differences between Baby's fictional struggle and the real one that has been unfolding in Pinellas Park.
For example, Swank's character is paralyzed from the neck down but can still speak; her desire to die is explicit. Schiavo can't speak, and doctors who have diagnosed her say she is in a persistent vegetative state. Her husband, Michael, has sought to have her feeding tube removed based on statements he says she made more than 15 years ago. Terri's parents, on the other hand, say Terri may be in a minimally conscious state and could someday improve.
But the film might affect notions of what constitutes a mercy killing, changing the way some people view the Schiavo case.
Nick Alexander, a 34-year-old Catholic from Milford, Conn., says he is rooting for Million Dollar Baby to win Best Picture. Yet he finds himself conflicted by the film's message, which he believes could be viewed as an endorsement of euthanasia.
That, he says, does not bode well for right-to-life advocates in cases such as Schiavo's. Those who wish to see a loved one kept alive, he says, "do not wish to see Hollywood dictate otherwise."
"The folks involved are so involved - and rightfully so - that anything that ever-so-slightly appears to tilt the scales in the general public will be resisted," says Alexander, a former film critic. "You can make a case for either side with Million Dollar Baby."
Eastwood, a Republican former mayor of Carmel, Calif., who once testified against the Americans with Disabilities Act before Congress, has said he never thought about the political ramifications of directing Million Dollar Baby.
"The film is supposed to make you think about the precariousness of life and how we handle it," he told the New York Times in January. "How the character handles it is certainly different than how I might handle it if I were in that position in real life. Every story is a "what if."'
The film certainly raised a few "what ifs" with me. What if Million Dollar Baby wins the Academy Award for Best Picture? It would be quite a feat for a film that makes such a powerful statement about the politics of suicide and morality.
What if the film's subtlety strikes an emotional chord with a wider, more appreciative post-Oscar audience? Unlike Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, which bludgeoned moviegoers with its overt political assumptions, Baby's poignant handling of a complex moral dilemma could resonate for years as the debate over euthanasia continues.
And clearly, the debate will continue. This fall, the Supreme Court will hear a challenge to Oregon's Death With Dignity Act, the nation's only voter-approved assisted-suicide law.
Maybe it's the dialogue that makes Million Dollar Baby so great. The film may not solve the right-to-die debate, but it succinctly captured the ambivalence many of us feel. "She wants to die," Eastwood's character tells the priest, "and I just want to keep her with me."
Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report. Jay Cridlin can be reached at 727 893-8336 or cridlin@sptimes.com