> I'm not sure how I feel about the message of the film, but the clear
> message is that people have the right to risk their lives for their dreams
> and make their choices when they go bad. Morgan Freeman is the voice of
> the film, because he had his chance and he lost his eye because of that
> risk, and is reduced to cleaning up the gym to survive in his old age. And
> the Clint character is deathly afraid of Swank repeating that kind of
> damage if she goes for a title round-- and his fears are correct. Yet the
> message of the story is not that Clint's character was right, but that
> Freeman and Swank had the right to the choice to the risk. And the choice
> to control the consequences of the aftermath of damage to their bodies due
> to that risk taken.
Your last line makes me sick to my stomach. There is no "choice" to want to die in the movie, there is only a visceral "reaction." There is an extremely contrived and badly written end (although there are many decent things about the movie otherwise) to MDB that limits her apparent scope of "choice". It is funny when people bring up her family for a reason to give up when she had so transcended her family with her whole live--how the hell could they be so important after the accident?
They did not even show ONE scene of physical therapy.
Imagine Ms. Swank's same character in a different movie where she pursues love instead of boxing--she falls for a handsome hunk who eventually dumps her hard--now how much empathy do you think Mr. Eastwood would elicit if he decides to snuff a lovelorn woman? There are all kind of emotions that people go through after such a traumatic event--how could such a spunky character be led (by writers) to such a limited and final decision? The answer is simply by playing on the prejudices against disability of the audience.
The point is Hollywood puts characters in places millions of times worse than the fallen boxer and only when disability is involved does "euthanasia" even come up. THAT is the very definition of prejudice.
Until the "euthanasia" advocates start putting instant death kits in boardrooms, in bank lending offices, on trading floors, and at elite prep school dances I am not buying it is about "choice" at all (lots of people kill themselves, but our society only feels good about it if the disabled are involved).
Oh, and if you want to know what the actual lives of the disabled are like (instead of snuff film propaganda):
Jim
"Given free will but within certain limitations, I cannot will myself to limitless mutations, I cannot know what I would be if I were not me, I can only guess me.
So when I say that I know me, how can I know that? What kind of spider understands arachnophobia? I have my senses and my sense of having senses. Do I guide them? Or they me?"
-Robert Wyatt