Daily Dialogue — September 19, 2013

Maggie Fitzgerald: I do have one favor to ask of you boss.
Frankie Dunn: Anything you want.
Maggie Fitzgerald: Remember what my daddy did for Axel?
Frankie Dunn: [long pause] Don’t even think about that.
Maggie Fitzgerald: 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 is asking a favor, suggested by rdlln. Today’s suggestion by Ashley Cook.

Trivia: “Rope Burns: Stories From the Corner,” a collection of short stories based on the experiences of long-time fight manager and cut-man Jerry Boyd, writing under the pen name F.X. Toole, was published in 2000 by Harper Collins. Toole was 70 at the time and had been writing and battling rejection letters for forty years. “Rope Burns” was his first published work. Soon after its publication he was commissioned to write his first novel, an epic story set on the Texas-Mexico border. He died on 2 September 2002 at age 72, just before his novel was finished. “Rope Burns” was dedicated to Jerry’s partner and longtime friend Dub Huntley.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary from Ashley: “This is a heartbreaking scene starting with the unthinkable favor, but Maggie’s beautifully written monologue is what clinches it. It persuades Frank away from his initial refusal and sets up the terrible choice he has to make in the end.”