Informercial on Assisted Suicide

Rating: 8/10 (28 October 2005)

I finally saw it last night, and to tell the truth, I was quite disappointed. I only vaguely knew that it was about a female boxer; nothing more. The first third was great, the dialogue was hilarious, though not very informative, so I could sense that something else was coming. What I didn't count on was an hour-long infomercial on assisted suicide.
Could Clint Eastwood have made this story any more unassailable? His motivation to make this out to be as "justified" a suicide as possible is clear from the many "justifying" points in the movie: 1) Hillary Swank's character is almost one-dimensional; she has absolutely nothing outside of boxing, so no big loss to anyone else, right? No great loss even to herself, once she's a quad.
2) Her character is quite saint-like, she is dedicated, motivated, able to stick up for herself, giving to her family when they don't deserve it, etc. If anybody deserves to to have a say over her life, it's her, right? 3) Clint's character is unusual in that he is a boxing trainer with an affinity for Yeats, Catholic apologetics and the Gaelic language, hardly a normal combination. The idea here is that his intelligence will win out over his emotion, just like all assisted-suicide should, right? We would never want to let someone kill themselves out of emotion.
4) Clint only show the worst parts of being a quadriplegic. This is not to say that it is a desirable position to be in, but to make it as bad as possible justifies the ending.
What I resent most about this movie is Clint using his media power to shove a point of view on society that shows no inherent regard for life itself. In fact, it elevates self over society, even while decreasing our meaning and purpose in a society already bereft of those values. Did Christopher Reeves' life have no meaning? Did he live in vain? Clint seems to think so.
A truly inspirational story would have had the trainer motivate the boxer to live on and make the most of her situation; Clint had no desire to inspire, he merely advertised his self-actuating point of view. Surely, such a driven character as Hillary Swank's would have been more of a fighter? To be honest, in the same position as the trainer, I probably would have done the same thing. As the boxer though, I don't think I would have wanted to die. My mind is the most valuable thing I have, and it retains value even as a quad. That's why Clint picked a one-dimensional boxer with nothing else to lose, to try and make you feel better about it.
To make matters worse, the two characters build up a strong father-daughter relationship, which is highlighted by his telling her the meaning of the gaelic boxing title that he had given her, moments before he kills her. 'Mo cosúlacht' means my darling, my blood, but it is also supposed to make us think that he has the right to do what she asks, being her "father". This is akin to the Pro-Choice justification used by women that their control over their bodies is more important than that of the life that they carry (and were responsible for causing). Even the title itself makes me think that Clint believes he has the right to kill his own "baby".
7/10 stars for the first half of the movie, 2/10 for the last half, and those primarily for Clint at least showing some anguish over the decision.