‘Million Dollar Baby’ by Clint Eastwood

Million Dollar Baby is a feature film based on ‘Rope Burn: Stories from the Corner,’ a short story collection by F.X. Toole. Clint Eastwood plays Frankie Dunn, a boxing trainer who agrees to train Maggie Fitzgerald, portrayed by Hilary Swank, even though she is inexperienced, old for a boxer, and he normally does not train women. The story is narrated by Scrap, played by Morgan Freeman, a former boxer and Frankie’s long-time friend. The audience learns that Frankie is estranged from his daughter, a fact of which Maggie remains unaware. Frankie writes his daughter weekly letters that are always returned to sender. With Frankie’s guidance, Maggie becomes a professional boxer and rises through the ranks. During her rise, Frankie gives Maggie the Gaelic nickname ‘Mo Cuishle,’ but refuses to tell her what it means. When she reaches a title fight, Maggie’s opponent hits her from behind between rounds. Maggie falls and strikes her head on her stool and is paralysed from the neck down. She becomes dependent on a ventilator and moves into a long-term care facility. After one of her legs is amputated because of an infected bedsore, Maggie asks Frankie to kill her, referencing a story in which her father put down his beloved dog to persuade him. Frankie refuses to kill her. He is a devout Catholic, having attended Mass nearly every day for 23 years. After Maggie attempts suicide by biting her tongue, Frankie speaks to his priest, telling him that it feels like a sin to keep Maggie alive when she wants to die. In the climax of the movie, Frankie sneaks into the care facility at night. He tells Maggie that the name he gave her, ‘Mo Cuishle,’ means ‘my darling, my blood’ before disconnecting her ventilator and injecting her with a fatal dose of epinephrine.

Million Dollar Baby garnered critical and commercial success after its release in 2004. The film won four Academy Awards for Best Director (Eastwood), Best Supporting Actor (Freeman), Best Actress (Swank), and Best Picture. It is featured in the New York Times list of the best films of the 21st century and Parade’s 100 best films of all time. Amidst its popularity, the film garnered backlash from disability rights activists who argued that the ending perpetuated the damaging stereotype that disabled lives are not worth living. Indeed, Maggie says explicitly in her plea to Frankie that she cannot live as a quadriplegic after travelling the world to box and having crowds chant her name. In this way, Maggie frames Frankie granting her death as merciful. While the film suggests that Frankie feels morally compromised and never recovers from killing Maggie, his actions are ultimately portrayed as something that he does out of love for Maggie, who has become like a daughter to him. This sentiment is reinforced by the final scene of the film, when it is revealed that Scrap’s narration is a letter that he is writing to Frankie’s daughter to explain what happened so that even if they never reconcile, she will know what kind of man Frankie was.