PLAY THE HORST WESSEL SONG FOR ME:

Clint Eastwood's euthanasia movie (Nat Hentoff, 3/03/05, Jewish World Review)

Clint Eastwood is no Dirty Harry. Attentive and with a wry sense of humor, he has told me he made his living as a jazz pianist in his youth. So he understands the life force of that music. But in his acclaimed "Million Dollar Baby," he is cluelessly encouraging the euthanization of some of the disabled. [...]

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, who vainly aspires to being a moral philosopher, wrote scathingly of those who revealed the ending: "The purpose of art is not always to send messages." But "Million Dollar Baby" has a message, which is clear — and deadly.

Disability rights activist Diane Coleman of Not Dead Yet, whom I've known for years, points out that message: "Some of the (film's) audience will be newly disabled people, their family members and friends, swept along in the critically acclaimed emotion that the kindest response to someone struggling with the life changes brought on by a severe injury is, after all, to kill them."

Obviously, a filmmaker has the right to send any message he or she wants, or send no message at all. But Clint Eastwood should not be surprised that certain messages are not taken kindly by the disabled, who are not dead yet — and are as alive as he is.