Morals in "Million Dollar Baby"

The movie presents several ethical and moral little dilemmas as the story goes on. It goes way beyond that "good fight movie" that we all expect it to be. The movie has three main characters; Frankie, Maggie, and Eddie ("Scrap"). All three characters have a rough past, and seem to be forgotten by most people around them. Eddie is a half blind ex-boxer who lives in Dunn's gym, cleaning and attending to it. Frankie is an aging boxing trainer and the owner of a shabby gym, and Maggie is a 'white-trash' diner waitress who dreams of becoming a boxer. Maggie decides to ask Frankie to coach her, and tells him she wants to be the best. Frankie initially does not want to teach her, because she is a girl (the audience might get that idea) - which is one of our fist encounters with a moral "dilemma"-; so Eddie decides to lend Maggie an old punching bag out of pity and because she is very persistent and keeps coming to the gym to practice on her own.


Maggie sees boxing as her "way out". Although this isn't a clear moral/ethical dilemma, boxing became an escape for her in social standards, because she didn't have a very good education - or at least we assume-. There could have been other ways of her reaching success and get out of the harsh life she has been living. She could have just as easily taken some course, or anything that would qualify her for a better job. However, she chose boxing. She comes from a very poor family, and all she wants is to buy a house for her mom. Her mom is another clear "problem", as she constantly tries to downgrade Maggie whenever she has the chance. Although Maggie does everything for her family, and is caring for others -even Frankie who doesn't show much affection towards her, when she refuses to leave him like his previous athlete, and keep him as her manager/coach-, her mother does not seem to support anything Maggie is doing at all.


Eddie a caring and compassionate character, as it is clear he only cares for others. He takes care of Maggie and also takes care of Danger (a boy who suffers a mental disability and dreams of becoming a boxer). Although Danger has that mental disability, Eddie still cares for him, and supports him. He is able to persuade Frankie in letting Danger use the gym without having to pay, and is also the one who convinces Frankie in training Maggie, after he compares her to Sugar Ray, considered one of the best boxers. He seems to be completely selfless, and it might be because he doesn't want what happened to him, happen to others whom he sees might have a big future ahead of them in the boxing world.


Frankie always seems to find good boxers but is never really recognized for bringing them to the top. Eddie was one of Frankie's boxers and lost his 109th fight and one of his eyes because Frankie did not stop him from fighting. The only reason Big Willie Little took on Mack as his new agent was because according to him, Frankie did not believe in him for not letting him fight in a particular fight. However, what Big Willie Little probably didn't know, was of Frankie's and Eddie's past, and the reason he would not allow the fight to happen. We then get the idea that Frankie doesn't want to initially train Maggie because everyone he has previously trained has left him. Like Eddie and Maggie, Frankie also seems to be alone in the world, as we see his letters to his daughter being returned to him and unread. The three protagonists become each other's family, and the gym becomes their home.


The huge and most obvious moral decision however is when Maggie asks Frankie to pull the plug after she hits her neck on the stool inside the ring after a huge punch during a fight. She becomes tetraplegic, and will barely be able to move, never mind boxing. In the hospital, she tells Frankie that once her family arrives, he will no longer have to take care of her. However, once her family arrives, all they insist for her to do is sign the papers transferring her money to to the rest of her family. Frankie tries to help Maggie, but her family sends him away, and Maggie sends her family away too.


Maggie bites her own tongue in an attempt to bleed to death. Frankie is woken up and asked to go to the hospital. Maggie then asks him to pull the plug on her, and reminds him of the story she told him about her father and his dog. Frankie decides to pull the plug because he sees that it is better than for her to live a suffering life.


Another somewhat hidden key moral decision, was Eddie's decision to write to Frankie's daughter. The narration of the movie was Eddie's letter to her, and we realize that in the end. He writes to her that after what happened, he never came back, but he would like to remind her what kind of man he was, what kind of father. It leaves us wondering wether it really was his place to have done that, but then again, throughout the movie, the audience really does see what type of man Frankie was, and that his daughter deserves to know the truth.


Was it really Frankie's place to have pulled the plug? Personally, I believe so. Maggie and Frankie grew a father-daughter relationship, and it fit perfectly with the story of the dog. Maggie did not want to suffer, and all she ever wanted was to box and be recognized for being good at something -especially since her family was only interested in her when it came to her money-. It was Maggie's wish to die knowing that "maybe she did alright" -according to Eddie.


The whole movie is a whole moral/ethical dilemma, with the constant struggle of the three protagonists to find their place in the world, as the world seems to have forgotten them.