Million Dollar Baby
I'm thinking mainly of
Million Dollar Baby, only because I just saw it, but it seems like all boxing movies are the same movie.
There's the training sequence, or montage, the fight montage, the individual training sequence and then, some more sequences and montages.
I wasn't blown away by this film, wasn't really impressed, seemed like "Rocky", but with Hillary Swank and slightly more modern clichés. I want to feel for a character, and in this case, a fighter, and I didn't care about her. Maybe it's because I don't like violence, even organized violence, where both individuals consent to the the activity. Maybe I shouldn't like this film, maybe it's not made for me or my demographic, but still, shouldn't I at least care when she gets creamed in the face, or, heck, even dies in the end?
She said she boxed because it was the only thing she was good at, and she felt alive while doing it. But I guess I don't have any sympathy for a person who chooses to beat the crap out of another person and get beat up themselves. And the movie played the sympathy card one too many times.
She was a woman, yes, that's pretty interesting that she did those things... but it still draws to mind the percentage of male to female sanitation workers, you know why there aren't many female garbage collectors? It's not because they can't get hired because there's discrimination, it's because the aren't applying... it's because picking up garbage is dangerous and gross. Women seem to be searching for jobs and things to do that don't involve having to get sliced open by rusty scrap metal or broken glass.
For those who do work in sanitation, do you really like it? Is it rewarding? Does it pay well... is that why you're in the business?
Why beat someone up? Does it pay well? That's got to be it. There was a money montage in this movie, so I guess I'm still struggling to get why she was doing it if she thought it was all about heart, if the director thought it was about heart.
Waiting to care about a fighter...