Saw a brilliant film a few days ago named 'The Million Dollar Baby' from the acclaimed
actor and director Clint Eastwood. It was released in 2004 but I never managed to watch
it until now and I was bowled over by its awesomeness. It was a film with lots of
emotions and sentiments, a story of determination, triumph and tragedy, well constructed
characters with superb acting from some of the best actors around including Morgan
Freeman, Clint Eastwood and Hillary Swank.
But above all, this film ask the most vital question that no one can answer with authority
as the answer of it changes so many times during our lives that we get confused every
time we face it . And the million dollar question was ‘what is the purpose/aim of our
lives?’
In the film, Maggie (Hillary Swank) was a simple middle aged girl (she was 32) working
as a waitress and living on leftover food. She had nothing except a dream and strong
willingness to become a boxer. She knew it was almost impossible considering her age
and no trainer would be interested to invest on her. She found the trainer Frankie (Clint
Eastwood) she believed can help her achieve her dreams and after several refusals she
finally managed to convince Frankie through sheer dedication. One and half years later
she did reach her goal and as she started to live her dream, an accident put an end to all of it at once, a total paralysis that forced her to choose euthanasia to end her misery. She asked Frankie to help her in that. Frankie was in a dilemma, blaming himself for her condition and at that point a friend of Frankie (played by Morgan Freeman) assured him that Maggie had achieved her dream through him.’ People die every day Frankie, mopping floors washing dishes. And you know what their last thought is? "I never got my shot.” Because of you, Maggie got her shot. You know what her last thought will be? "I think I did all right.”
These lines were very significant to me. What will be the milestone/goal that once
achieved; we won’t regret the time we spent in this world before dying? Maggie was
young and she could have found another long term goal for her later life yet she had
given her everything to achieve her immediate goal. She was already living a miserable
life before being a boxer, so, by fulfilling her dream, she ended a life not worth of
mention but a tragic accident ended her second life too.
What was important here to realize was the importance of understanding our purpose, the ‘shot’ of our life and follow it unconditionally no matter what stage of life we are in. rather than regret what we lost in our past, we should focus only on what we still can do in future. There is never too late to kick start our dash towards our goal.
The only problem here is to understand that goal. In our childhood and during our school
life, we used to have so much dreams and goals. Our thought process at that time is so
uncluttered that many of us manage to fulfill our immediate goals with ease. We also set long term goals in that period but as we grow up, many materialistic and biological needs blur our vision and move us away from our main goal. Wealth, love, sex dominate our mind and we gradually forget what really was the purpose of life until we reach the end of our journey.
I know how hard it is to focus only on that elusive dream but if we can
achieve it, it will make everything worthwhile. If we can think with a clarity of a child’s
vision and pursue our goal with total dedication, we will find ourselves in the position
that we dream to be in and unless a sudden accident put an end to our life prematurely,
we will have plenty of time to reap the benefits of our struggle to fulfill our dream and
say ‘I think I did all right’ before the end.
actor and director Clint Eastwood. It was released in 2004 but I never managed to watch
it until now and I was bowled over by its awesomeness. It was a film with lots of
emotions and sentiments, a story of determination, triumph and tragedy, well constructed
characters with superb acting from some of the best actors around including Morgan
Freeman, Clint Eastwood and Hillary Swank.
But above all, this film ask the most vital question that no one can answer with authority
as the answer of it changes so many times during our lives that we get confused every
time we face it . And the million dollar question was ‘what is the purpose/aim of our
lives?’
In the film, Maggie (Hillary Swank) was a simple middle aged girl (she was 32) working
as a waitress and living on leftover food. She had nothing except a dream and strong
willingness to become a boxer. She knew it was almost impossible considering her age
and no trainer would be interested to invest on her. She found the trainer Frankie (Clint
Eastwood) she believed can help her achieve her dreams and after several refusals she
finally managed to convince Frankie through sheer dedication. One and half years later
she did reach her goal and as she started to live her dream, an accident put an end to all of it at once, a total paralysis that forced her to choose euthanasia to end her misery. She asked Frankie to help her in that. Frankie was in a dilemma, blaming himself for her condition and at that point a friend of Frankie (played by Morgan Freeman) assured him that Maggie had achieved her dream through him.’ People die every day Frankie, mopping floors washing dishes. And you know what their last thought is? "I never got my shot.” Because of you, Maggie got her shot. You know what her last thought will be? "I think I did all right.”
These lines were very significant to me. What will be the milestone/goal that once
achieved; we won’t regret the time we spent in this world before dying? Maggie was
young and she could have found another long term goal for her later life yet she had
given her everything to achieve her immediate goal. She was already living a miserable
life before being a boxer, so, by fulfilling her dream, she ended a life not worth of
mention but a tragic accident ended her second life too.
What was important here to realize was the importance of understanding our purpose, the ‘shot’ of our life and follow it unconditionally no matter what stage of life we are in. rather than regret what we lost in our past, we should focus only on what we still can do in future. There is never too late to kick start our dash towards our goal.
The only problem here is to understand that goal. In our childhood and during our school
life, we used to have so much dreams and goals. Our thought process at that time is so
uncluttered that many of us manage to fulfill our immediate goals with ease. We also set long term goals in that period but as we grow up, many materialistic and biological needs blur our vision and move us away from our main goal. Wealth, love, sex dominate our mind and we gradually forget what really was the purpose of life until we reach the end of our journey.
I know how hard it is to focus only on that elusive dream but if we can
achieve it, it will make everything worthwhile. If we can think with a clarity of a child’s
vision and pursue our goal with total dedication, we will find ourselves in the position
that we dream to be in and unless a sudden accident put an end to our life prematurely,
we will have plenty of time to reap the benefits of our struggle to fulfill our dream and
say ‘I think I did all right’ before the end.
