MovieChat Forums > Million Dollar Baby (2005) Discussion > Ridiculous ending

Ridiculous ending

posted 17 years ago by nathantruant
149 replies | jump to latest

Am I the only one who found the ending to be completely contrived, if not nonsensical. This has nothing to do with the fact that she died, and that it was sad. I have no problem with sad endings, when they MAKE SENSE. The thing I don't understand is WHY she had to die? In what way did it help the narrative, the plot, the story, or the lesson to be drawn from it? Here we have a story about a girl, her dream, and her struggle to live out that dream, despite her horrible family, and all the odds being against her, and as she is about to realize even the tiniest portion of that dream: BLAM, you're paralyzed... Why that? To me it seemed like it came TOTALLY out of left-field. It was like Eastwood had this great movie going, had everything worked out perfectly and suddenly realized that it was getting too long and he needed to end it and that's the first thing he could come up with.

It just didn't make sense in relation to the rest of the story. Now some people will say "well that's life, sometimes *beep* happens." And yeah, that is life, but MDB isn't life, it's movie. Her injury seemed totally useless and left me wondering where in the hell Eastwood pulled that idea from.

Mystic River = Eastwood movie with a SAD, SAD, SAD ending, but one that MADE SENSE. Any thoughts?

[–] omarpowermotivation 9 years ago

Old post, but I agree. I thought it was directed beautifully and it had the emotional impact it was going for however it didn't work with Hilary Swank's characterization here. Her character was stubborn, self-motivated, and had an iron-will. That should have transferred over here when she became paralyzed. Clint Eastwood should have coached her through the transition. Both moving on with their lives--Clint settling down as a cabin owner and Hillary Swank going to school. It wouldn't have been as dramatic though I liked the ending as-is.

[–] AndrewGS 8 years ago

Old post, but I agree. I thought it was directed beautifully and it had the emotional impact it was going for however it didn't work with Hilary Swank's characterization here. Her character was stubborn, self-motivated, and had an iron-will. That should have transferred over here when she became paralyzed.

Well Maggie's view and that of the film was that the iron will got her to glory but there are conditions in which it isn't enough, that it's understandable to want to not fight anymore, that she had already won but continuing to suffer would have been losing what she had won.

[–] flicky-3 8 years ago

There's 2 important parts to the story:

Maggie's success in life through boxing

Frankie developing a close relationship with her (and ending that relationship)in the absence of his real daughter.

If she wins the fight/championship and stays healthy all you've got is a female rocky movie.

This was much heavier in tone/subject matter.

Depressing yet but much more interesting.

[–] chilone (18067) 6 years ago

Clint didn't write it.