Many people in the film have interpreted it from the perspective of dreams and reality, and the heroine even gave up her life for the dream, which makes people feel sorry. Leaving aside the theme of dreams, today, I will deconstruct from another level.
Million Dollar Baby is a drama/sports film directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Clint Eastwood, Hillary Swank, and others. In 2005, the film won Best Picture at the 77th Academy Awards.
"Million Dollar Baby" mainly tells the story of the teacher-student, "family", close friends and other multiple relationships between boxing coach Frankie and Maggie, who aspires to become a boxing champion, Francis helps Maggie realize her dreams, and Maggie helps Frankie find herself.
The protagonist Maggie's life experience is sad, with the loss of her father at an early age, her brother in prison, her sister insane, and her mother living on social welfare. The family can't give her love and security, only boxing coach Frankie, they feel love and hope for each other in their run-in.
Today, I will start from the character experience, explore the character factors that led to Maggie's tragic fate and the education of love reflected in the film, the third part of the article, I will combine the tragedy of the hero and heroine's life, give my thoughts and suggestions.
The theory of the "id, the ego, the superego" was first proposed by Freud in 1923's Self and the Ego.
The Id: It is made up of all innate instinctive impulses, one of the most inaccessible and extremely primitive parts of the personality. Self: It is the conscious part of the personality, the perceptual system formed by the influence of the external world from the original self. The superego: Located at the highest level of the personality structure, is the idealized self.
First, Maggie's dominance of the "id" is the foundation of the personality, which both contains primitive human instincts and desires and motivates her to strive for survival
Maggie's life was poor, she was born into a terrible family, and no one really cared about her needs. So she's still working as a waitress in a restaurant in her 30s, bringing home leftover food from her guests for dinner. In order to survive, fighting alone in her surviving life is the embodiment of her "original self".
In my opinion, Maggie, who thinks that life is meaningless, still chooses to live because there is hope for life. She eats the steak left over from the guests, and when others look at her with strange eyes, she can also smile and cope, all because she is poor, when dignity and survival are in front of her, in order to survive, the meaning of "original self" will subconsciously choose to survive.
Second, Maggie's dominance of the "self" stems from her own acquired learning as a human being, which follows the principles of reality and satisfies the requirements of the original self in a reasonable way
Relying on the plate to pick up leftovers every day to survive, such a day like the walking dead, can only be regarded as life, but not real life.
Maggie asked Frankie to train her, and in the face of Frankie's refusal, she said: "Since I was 13 years old, I have been working as a waitress, and I have always been there. Boxing is the only joy and hope in my life. And now, you stop me from training, and my whole life is hopeless! ”
She thinks that the meaning of life lies in boxing, so she can endure a life of resignation.
And when she didn't want to be paralyzed in bed for the rest of her life, and wanted to die tragically, she said to Frankie, "I've tasted success, and that moment the audience shouted my name, the name you gave me." I struggled to come into this world and now I'm struggling to leave. Please, I don't want them to take little by little from me what I have. This is all the embodiment of Maggie's "self", no longer satisfied with survival, but proudly satisfying herself.
In real life, the pursuit of dreams is important and meaningful for everyone, and even dreams are above all else. Although the ideal is very full, the reality is very bone, and it is difficult to have both.
In the film, Maggie's "original self", "self", "superego" triple personality are mutually restrained and interdependent, it seems that each personality has "principled" limitations, but it is a true reflection of her different life stages, whether it is the display of the self, or the pursuit of the superego, or the regulation of the self between the two, these behaviors make Maggie's understanding of family affection and the meaning of life more profound, so that in the end she willingly accepts death.
Third, Maggie's "superego" personality is the antithesis of the original self, which is the controller in the personality structure, bound by society and morality, and forms a personality that follows social rules and moral bottom lines
Maggie's family problems are serious, the family has not really given her love, and her own life is already difficult. However, after hard training, when she earned a lot of competition prize money with her own efforts, she did not want to seek a better quality life for herself, but to use money to improve the life of her family.
She followed Frankie's advice to buy a house, and after she gave it to her mother, she instead blamed Maggie for giving her money directly, not telling her in advance, and possibly even ruining her chances of receiving Social Security benefits.
Despite her mother's accusations against her, Maggie insists that she will send money to her mother, which is morally filial piety to her family, and Maggie obeys social rules and is the embodiment of her "superego".
In my opinion, the behavior under the guidance of the ego is triggered by the most primitive instincts of human beings, just as each of us chooses to confront family and friends in order to pursue our dreams, and even turn against each other; in contrast, dominated by the moral and socially constrained superego, we act more according to moral principles, and all actions are carried out under moral constraints and sexual goodness, just like in the film, Maggie, the goodness of human nature is always accompanied by the observance of the social contract.
First, Maggie lost her father at an early age, her brother was imprisoned, her sister was pregnant before marriage, her mother lived on social welfare, and she lacked love from her family since she was a child, and everything could only rely on herself.
Maggie used the hard money from boxing to buy a house for her mother, but instead of getting support, her mother said that she was unrealistic, "Find a husband, Maggie, live a normal life." The mother did not say this because she cared about Maggie, but because she was worried that she would no longer be able to send money to herself, and even more worried that the government would stop her social welfare.
Maggie's concern for her family was never exchanged for their equal treatment, and every member of the family would only squeeze her, never giving Maggie real care, only blows and sarcasm. Maggie was paralyzed in bed, and when her family came to see her, she thought it was with a real heart, and when Maggie told her mother about her wonderful performance on the boxing stage, her mother still said "But Maggie, you lose." Even if she tried her best, she still didn't get the encouragement from her family, which made Maggie very sad.
Even though Maggie was badly injured in boxing, her family was still arguing over her inheritance. He also forced Maggie, who could not write, to sign the suicide note with a pen in her mouth.
It was the misfortune of the family and the sorrow of Maggie, who was expected to benefit them and never cared about her. This makes her unable to rely on her family, without the love of her family, she can only rely on herself, which is why she is optimistic and strong.
Second, the family has no meaning to Maggie, and coach Frankie's love for her makes up for the lack of love in the family.
Frankie accepts Maggie's dream and teaches Maggie to punch, to dodge, and to protect herself. As time goes on, Maggie and Frankie become more and more tacit, and Maggie finds unprecedented care in this seemingly indifferent old man, which allows her to forget the meanness of her family.
At the final boxing match, Frankie gave Maggie a green suit embroidered with the Gallic word "Mokushler": My flesh and blood, my beloved.
When Maggie realizes that she can't return to the battlefield, she wants Frankie to help her die, but he can't. Maggie said: "I've seen the whole world, people shouting my name, I've been in magazines, I've experienced the process of fighting for dreams, I've experienced pain and love, I've got what I wanted. These were things she hadn't dared to think about before, and after a long hesitation, Frankie made up her mind to help Maggie inject the drug, and Maggie had a smile on her face, and this smile was still so bright until Frankie turned and walked into the darkness.
Because, when the family abandons themselves and blames themselves, only Frankie, treating her like a daughter, cares about her and educates her. Frankie's love for her makes up for the missing part of the family. Frankie gave her an education of love and everything she wanted, so that when her life was hopeless, she could leave happily.
From the family point of view, Maggie and Frankie are both people who are snubbed by the family; from the perspective of personality characteristics, Maggie and Frankie are stubborn and stubborn; from the perspective of life experience, neither of them is really happy. Reflecting on reality from the tragedies of the characters, we can get a lot of inspiration.
(1) Attach importance to the status of relatives and give more companionship to family members
As an excellent boxing coach, Frankie is well-known in boxing and has trained excellent boxers, but he is still unhappy. Because in order to pursue his dreams, he neglected his relatives around him, and until the end, he could not reconcile with his daughter.
Every day, he insisted on going to church to confess and write letters to his daughter to make up for his mistakes, but he never waited for her daughter's reply, and the letter was always returned.
All this is because of the persistence in their own career and dreams, the company of relatives in the second place, led to such an ending. In life, dreams and careers are important, but what really makes people happy is the support and companionship of their families, otherwise, no matter how good the career is, the heart is empty.
(2) Do your best to fight for your dreams, but don't hurt your body
In the film, Maggie's spirit and actions to fight for her dreams are very touching, and she is giving with her life. On the field, the bridge of the nose was broken, endured the pain and let the coach take it back, and when he was seriously injured, he did not let the coach give up the game, insisting that he could win. A woman, still clinging to her dreams until she is in her 30s, and the cold ridicule of others has not made her flinch, very admirable.
Boxing is a very dangerous training program, and the pursuit of a championship is respectable, but if you take your life, it is really not worth it. In real life, we have to weigh the pros and cons of dreams and our own bodies, people live, there are infinite possibilities, but for this to take a life, the pain, not only themselves, but also the relatives around them. Therefore, the body should be placed in the first place, and then talk about dreams.
(3) True happiness lies in the heart, not in the surface
The heroine Maggie has been very poor in life, renting a cheap house, eating other people's leftover meals to fill her hunger, even if she is always rejected, she still insists on asking for guidance in the boxing gym. In the eyes of others, she lived such a meticulous life, how could she be happy, but it was her greatest happiness to be affirmed by others and to be able to participate in the competition.
In real life, we are always suffering from the pressure of life and the complexity of interpersonal relationships, which make us feel unhappy. However, in the process of our struggle for life and for our ideals, a word of affirmation from the people around us, a word of encouragement, support and care can make us move. We can feel happy from it, happiness is only a point of view, happiness is actually very simple.
To summarize:
The movie "Million Dollar Baby" is very touching, and the tragic ending is both unexpected and reasonable. From the small characters, we can feel the efforts and hardships of ordinary characters for their dreams, and a trace of touching the relationship between the characters.
Starting from the experience of the characters, this article focuses on the analysis of the character image of the characters, and understands the gap between dreams and reality, people may not always succeed, there will always be times of failure. It is important to recognize your true needs and find your own happiness.