The film I decided to look at is Million Dollar Baby. This is considered to be a sports film within the cinematic world. What makes this interesting about this sports film is that it doesn't have a happy ending or something the main character overcame. Usually within these types of movies, the protagonist defeats the biggest opponent for wins the championship. Lately within society, sports films are becoming more and more about the ideas behind the story rather than them achieving the greatest victory. A more realistic story if you ask me. People learn at some point or the next that not every story has a happy ending and this is one of them.
I noticed that there are people with morals who watch this film might get offended by. First off, Frankie said at the beginning of the movie that he will not train girls. As for as viewers might think, it might be a sexist act towards women. From a filmmaker's perspective, this is an obstacle that the protagonist must tackle. Ethics here is a very common problem that the world has taken on. Women within sports competitions and gaining respect for what they do. What role has women played over the years? They have mostly played the housewife or the ones who work in kitchens. So, when Maggie tries to become a boxer instead staying a waitress, it is a real role change. Would an old fashioned boxing coach stop from training big guys to women trying to make a name for them? That is what Frankie did in the movie because he seemed to try to replace his daughter with her. Does that make it right for him to take on Maggie as one of his own? We can see that he does when he kills her in her sleep. Once she was paralyzed, she could not take the news. Is it or was it right for Frankie to kill her? When he sought help from his priest, he said that if he goes through with this injection it is a grave sin and will be lost forever if he goes through with it. But, if you look at it from an athlete's point of view, some say that they would rather die what they loved rather than die a painful death of not playing at all. It is interesting to say those kinds of things. I personally think that Maggie had the right to live, even if she couldn't box ever again. But, under her own judgement, it was her call whether or not to die.
As a film student, I believe that films have a moral behind them but it depends on the target audience the filmmakers are trying to relate to. A moral is about the right or wrong principles of a persons behaviour. This is obviously not a children's movie so this movie is targeted to the older crowd. These people might have different morals than little kids. The moral of this movie for me seemed to be the quote that Frankie gave to Maggie, "you should protect yourself in the ring at all times". For the moral, I believe it is the meaning of the story that is the universal idea that should be taken away from the movie. But that's just me. For others, it might be to not box because you could get seriously injured.
Now sticking with the topic of morals, art as a whole is "apparently" about how the artist feels about their work and what it represents to them. I say this because I really don't understand art. I feel like I understand the type of art in history because it is straightforward and it means exactly what is in the picture. Nowadays, modern art can mean multiple ideas and theories. So when you ask me for all art to be moral, I clearly can't answer that. I believe in class we watched a video on youtube by Brazilian comedians on modern art. It showed a man wrapped in wires on a blank canvas which was hung over the observers. When they lady explained what the piece was, she said that it was called something along the lines of "In Pain". What made the buyer interested was because it was called a "unique piece" and it was "one of a kind". The man said that this was wrong and was inhumane to the man in the art piece. Now, the difference between these two people is that they both have different viewpoints and morals towards this piece of "art". This shows how individuals can have different perceptions and schema's on morality. For me, art is always moral according to whom it appeals to. Art is focused for the specific group that the artist intended to draw, paint, or sculpt for.
This movie presents a lot of new ethical dilemmas as well as moral judgement and ideas. With this movie, it is now considered more of a ToK film rather than just a sports film.
