FW: The real story behind Million Dollar Baby

[Guest guest]

I thought this was

interesting

The real story behind

Million Dollar Baby

BreakPoint with

Colson

Commentary #050310 - 03/10/2005

The Real Million Dollar Baby: Courage and the Sanctity of Life

The story is, by now, a familiar one: A female boxer from Missouri takes a terrible beating in the ring and winds up brain-damaged.

She's initially suicidal, but with the help of family and friends, she rallies,

takes up painting, and speaks out about her life and the value of all life.

Wait a minute, you say: That's not how MILLION DOLLAR BABY ends. In the Academy

Award-winning film, the injured boxer begs her coach to kill her because she

can't face life as a quadriplegic, and he complies. But a real-life boxer,

whose life story likely inspired the film, says the ending is bunk.

Like the boxer in MILLION DOLLAR BABY, Dallam was a Missouri girl who grew up in poverty. In 1996, began boxing. After

just two months of training, her trainer urged her into a professional match

and stepped into the ring with a far more experienced boxer. By the end

of four two-minute rounds, the

referee stopped the fight, but it was too late. had received 150 blows to

the head and was comatose by the time she reached a hospital. Doctors told

's sister that she " probably wouldn't make it, and, if she did, would

most likely be a vegetable. "

But survived. She had to relearn how to walk and read. And her injuries

affected her vision and memory. Deeply depressed, she attempted suicide. But

instead of helping her sister kill herself, her sister, , moved

into her home.

Unable to go back to her counseling job, took up an earlier interest and

began painting again.

Seeing MILLION DOLLAR BABY gave nightmares. But it also led to her

decision to talk with others about life after a devastating brain injury. As

told the NEW YORK TIMES, the fictional coach in MILLION DOLLAR BABY

" took the easy way out by killing [the boxer] rather than having to deal

with what her life would have been like. "

's sister, , is convinced the film writer, F. X. Toole, now

deceased, based the film on . Too many similarities, she says. So

wants to set the record straight. People, you see, can live on after terrible

injuries and live rich, productive lives -- people like Joni Eareckson Tada, a

quadriplegic who suffered a spinal-cord injury, who also paints and has a

wonderful ministry.

As Joni and Friends journalist Sanda Allyson writes, " In the face of

devastating injury, many people feel they want to die. But they move from

depression and feeling that there is nothing for them " into a new hope and

even joy.

" We can have peace and happiness, " she writes, " in the midst of

situations that might have previously been thought of as unendurable. That is

just one reason why virtually all disability advocacy groups . . . are so

vehemently opposed to this idea of 'helping' someone die, which may sound warm

and fuzzy, but in

the searing light of truth, is just murder. "

So tell your neighbors that the real-life story behind MILLION DOLLAR BABY that

exposes the Hollywood fiction and its values for what they are:

propaganda. We can live life to the fullest, even with great

disabilities, if we don't fall for the secular siren song that says that there

is such a thing as a life not worthy

to be lived.

The film MILLION DOLLAR BABY may have won Academy Awards, but the true-life

story wins a much greater award for courage and human dignity.

For printer-friendly version, visit

http://msg1svc.net/servlet/Gateway?p=pfm & u=12116 & et=T & s=113301 and

simply click on Today's Commentary at the top of the homepage. The

printer-friendly link is on the left-hand column.

Copyright © 2005 Prison Fellowship THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT.

THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. " BreakPoint with

Chuck Colson " is a daily commentary on news and trends from a Christian

perspective. Heard on more than 1000 radio outlets nationwide, BreakPoint

transcripts are also available on the Internet. BreakPoint is a production of

The Wilberforce Forum, a division of Prison Fellowship: 44180 Riverside Parkway, Lansdowne, VA 20176.

FOR FURTHER READING AND INFORMATION

Today's BreakPoint offer: See BreakPoint's Recommended Films List,

including Chuck Colson's List of 50 Insightful Films.

http://msg1svc.net/servlet/Gateway?p=pfm & u=12139 & et=T & s=113301

http://msg1svc.net/servlet/Gateway?p=pfm & u=12140 & et=T & s=113301

Rick Lyman, " Far from Hollywood, a Boxer Whose Dreams Died in the Ring, "

NEW YORK TIMES, 9 March 2005. (When archived, article costs $2.95 to retrieve.)

http://msg1svc.net/servlet/Gateway?p=pfm & u=12141 & et=T & s=113301