{"id":1062,"date":"2005-03-07T09:13:09","date_gmt":"2005-03-07T17:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/2005\/03\/priceless_million_dollar_babie\/"},"modified":"2005-03-07T09:13:09","modified_gmt":"2005-03-07T17:13:09","slug":"priceless_million_dollar_babie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2005\/03\/priceless_million_dollar_babie.html","title":{"rendered":"PRICELESS MILLION DOLLAR BABIES"},"content":{"rendered":"

A reader who wrote earlier that the right-wing media has tried to sabotage “Million Dollar Baby”<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> by
\ngiving away the ending sends this message:
\n

<\/P>
\n


\n

I sent a copy of my comments<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> about the Weekly Standard article<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> on
\n“Million Dollar Baby” to a friend whose brother’s neck was broken in a classic diving
\nboard\/swimming pool accident 20 years ago and who is now a quadriplegic. She had seen the
\nmovie, and it hit her hard — she said she sobbed uncontrollably during the latter part. I thought
\nyou might be interested in her response to the film as well as to the right-wing attacks on
\nit.<\/BLOCKQUOTE>
\n

<\/P>
\n

<\/A>She wrote him that conservative efforts would backfire and actually
\nboost the movie’s popularity just as the Catholic Church’s banned-book list helped sell books
\nduring the ’50s and ’60s. Further, since “Million Dollar Baby” has already won the Oscar for best
\npicture, conservatives can’t hurt it. More important, she added this powerful note:<\/P>
\n


\n

I love the way people without experience expound on [the immorality of
\nhelping someone die]. Though some quadrapalegics may be living satisfying lives, I don’t know
\nany of them. My brother tries to keep up a good front, but it takes him five hours to get up,
\nanother five to get into bed — even with range of motion exercises, etc. — that is, when an aide
\nshows up to help him. That leaves him about three good hours in each day. He often sleeps in his
\nchair if the night aide doesn’t show. He has no control over his bowels, so has to have someone
\nhelp him go to the bathroom once a week and often has accidents (lots of integrity there). After
\n20 years post-injury, my brother often cannot sleep at night due to his spasms, because he refuses
\nto take the high dose of Valium prescribed to help him sleep. He is petrified to go into a home, as
\nhe fears the treatment he would receive. Believe me, it is no way to live.<\/BLOCKQUOTE>
\n

She also notes defiantly, “If he had had a leg amputated and such terrible bed sores, and
\nbegan biting his tongue trying to kill himself [as the Maggie does in the movie], I would consider
\nfinding a way to help him.”
\n

Meantime, shifting gears to “shallow and satirical,” Matt Haber of Low Culture has posted
\ndetails of the sequel “2 Million Dollar Baby.”<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> Be
\nprepared to laugh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A reader who wrote earlier that the right-wing media has tried to sabotage “Million Dollar Baby” by giving away the ending sends this message: I sent a copy of my comments about the Weekly Standard article on “Million Dollar Baby” to a friend whose brother’s neck was broken in a classic diving board\/swimming pool accident […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1062","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-h8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1062\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}