Here's an excellent article by Jim Emerson at :: rogerebert.com :: essays about Million Dollar Baby. (Spoiler alert: If you haven't seen the movie and don't want to know how it ends, don't read the article.)

I had wanted to see the movie on the strength of a preview that I saw, but after I found out how it ends, I no longer want to see it. It isn't because I disagree with what is presented, but because I don't wish to put myself through the emotional trauma. I don't think it matters at all whether I agree or disagree with it. (I'm being intentionally vague here, obviously.)

What I do think matters is that people realize that this is a movie. Anyone with enough money is free to make a movie about anything they like. They can espouse any agenda that they wish, put forward any political stance, in short, do whatever they like as long as they can pay for it.

Why should Clint Eastwood care what anybody thinks, except to care whether they want to see his movie or not? And maybe not that, even.

It just seems crazy to me that anyone would think it's legitimate to say, "How dare he make a movie like that?"

I hate to say that I'm smarter than the average bear, because I'm really not, but I do think that I may have a more balanced view of the world than a lot of people. Maybe people do think that if someone wealthy and famous makes a movie, that anything they say is right, and good, and we should all change our opinions to conform to theirs.

Like the huge controversies over The DaVinci Code--I've said before that I thought the book, although not a very good book, was, at least, somewhat suspenseful and had some intriguing ideas. But it's fiction! It wasn't written as fact, and even if some of the things in it were true, that doesn't mean that it should be read as gospel. So to speak.

The world is a big place. There are a lot of people in it. And face it, most of them are going to have different opinions from you. And that's okay, it really is.