Reflections on "Million dollar baby"

I had seen this movies several years ago, now I have a chance to watch this movie again while I thought I just need to walk through it quickly, but actually it attracted me to enjoy it like it was the first time. Even I already knew the story, the feeling is quite different.“She came from southwestern Missouri, the hills outside the scratch-ass Ozark town of Theodosia,  set in the cedars and oak trees somewhere between nowhere and goodbye. She grew up knowing  one thing: She was trash.” But Maggie is charming. She is not pretty, not famous, without good background and her family members are all cold-blooded and selfish. Boxing is the only thing she wants and loves to do. She is too old for being a boxer, she has a long hard time on practicing and training. 


“ I am 32, Mr. Dunn. I’m celebrating that I spent another year scraping dishes and waitressing which is what I have been doing since 13. According to you, I’ll be 37 before I can even throw a decent pouch which after working this speed bag for a month and getting nowhere, I now realize maybe God’s simple truth. Other truth is, my brother’s in prison, my sister cheats on welfare by pretending one of her kids is still alive, my daddy’s dead, and my mama weighs 312 pounds. If I was thinking straight, I’d go back home, find a used trailer, buy a deep fryer and some Oreos. The problem is, this is the only thing I ever felt good doing. If I’m too old for this, then I got nothing. That enough truth to suit you?” I shocked, only few words. I love movies, because we can know people’s stories through the action, dialogue and their emotion. Those stories are like songs, they are so touching. This conversation is between Maggie and Frankie, she doesn’t like to complain about her family, she just wants to catch her dream even it seems hopeless. The only thing she want to do, is doing what she wants to do and proves that she is not “ trash”.


Her struggle moves Frankie who is also an obstinate person to be the dream’s coach to train her. Everyone feels Maggie will become a wonderful boxer same as the movies’ name “ million dollar baby”. However, as the talented and hard working girl likes Maggie, the end of the story sounds like a ridiculous joke, her spine get a beyond repair hurt because of the opponent gets out of bounds on purpose. She used to beat all comers, but now she became a women who need machine to support her live to spend one hour around to set down in a chair. 


Maggie begs Frankie to end her life, he rejected, but finally he still let her go. Why Frankie finally frees Maggie? The reason might be that he thought Maggie who cannot bear herself like this may want to commit suicide once and once again. He may not be willing to see Maggie’s inconsolable and unbearable pain. I was hoping that the writer of the movie can find a great doctor to save her life, the cure may not able to let her come back to the competition but give her hope to stay alive. But that is just an individual wish which will never become the truth in the movie.

I disagree with her choice of giving up her life, even if it may set her "free". Death is easier than staying alive in her situation, but that is not right to give up her life like that, there is still someone needs her. She feels sad and hopeless, wants to dead with her honor, but I still believe there is something meaningful for her to support herself to live in this world. This ending is so cruel for a movie, however this is the reality in nowadays life. Her family only care about the money, I don't know how to think about her character, she is brave to confront death, but she is also weak to face the future life.

She got what she wants, maybe is not “perfect”, but she may feel satisfied when she can choose her own future at least. She was born a fighter, and ended up fighting to her own fate.