Daily Dialogue — July 19, 2019

“I can’t be like this, Frankie. Not after what I’ve done. I’ve seen the world. People chanted my name. Well, not my name… some damn name you gave me. But they were chanting for me. I was in magazines. You think I ever dreamed that’d happen? I was born two pounds, one-and-a-half ounces. Daddy used to tell me I’d fight my way into this world, and I’d fight my way out. That’s all I wanna do, Frankie. I just don’t wanna fight you to do it. I got what I needed. I got it all. Don’t let ’em keep taking it away from me. Don’t let me lie here ‘till I can’t hear those people chanting no more.”

— Million Dollar Baby (2004), screenplay by Paul Haggis, stories by F.X. Toole

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Hospital. Today’s suggestion by @akh003.

Trivia: Producer Al Ruddy loved the story and was determined to make it into a film and spent four years trying to find backers who were interested in helping him make it. “I couldn’t get anybody interested,” he said in an interview, “and I’m talking about people who are friends of mine, people I’ve done business with for years. They’d tell me “Who wants to see a movie about two old grizzled guys and a girl fighter?” Eventually he found someone interested — Clint Eastwood. The actor-director read the script and said “It’s a downer…but God, it’s gorgeous.”

Dialogue On Dialogue: One of the more gut-wrenching endings set in a hospital. Oftentimes, dialogue is best served through subtext. But sometimes, a character just needs to be on the nose and say directly what’s on their mind.