Alfie (1966)

(Disclaimer for the diehards: This doesn't relate to my list. But it's my blog, so the apologies stop there.)
(Disclaimer for the other, movie-loving diehards: Spolier Alert, but the movie was made 45 years ago.)

Does it mean that it's a good movie when it evokes my indignation to where I can't think in straight lines?

I just watched Alfie. (1966, not 2004)

I didn't know much about it going in except that Michael Caine would be playing a role that I hadn't seen him play before - that of a womanizing always-gets-the-girl kind of guy. I was excited for that part actually - Michael Caine has been one of my favorite actors for a while, and seeing as he started acting the same year my mother was born, I was curious to see him as young and attractive instead of older and aristocratic. And what's more, any movie made now-a-days that's advertised with a leading role as a womanizer will undoubtedly end up with that character learning his lesson and either falling in love with the woman who put him in his place or be left to wallow in his thoughts and feel bad about himself, thus giving me the moral and feminist high ground.

A learned-your-lesson-you-dirtbag kind of ending. It was supposed to be win-win.

But instead of a flirtatious yet immoral and like-able Alfie, I was smacked in the face with a verbally and emotionally abusive character. I struggle to accept that women were so submissive in that time period.  But I also have to acknowledge the nagging feeling in the back of my mind that knows not only did that happen 40 years ago, it continues to happen today. Each woman desperately aches for Alfie to change and to love her, but ultimately must stand up for herself or her children/family and leave him. Not that Alfie cared one bit; he never changed.

The gut-wrenching part of the movie was in the last twenty minutes, and I think it is perhaps one of the best pro-life arguments I have ever seen in film. A woman Alfie slept with once, Lily, is pregnant and finds it necessary to have an abortion. The doctor performs what my Google research has deduced to be a third-month induction abortion (warning - link explains the process in detail) where the mother winds up having to give birth even though the pregnancy was terminated. Nothing is shown in the movie, because Alfie goes for a walk after silencing Lily's labor pains so that his landlord won't hear. Because that's the human(e) thing to do in his opinion.

When he comes back, the camera stays on Alfie's face when he sees the fetus (never actually shown). I saw every emotion (which is a reminder of Michael Caine's prowess in acting; it is dreadfully apparent in this scene). He explains the experience to a friend (after having run out, leaving Lily alone in his apartment again) and it is heartbreaking and haunting. It's as if he suddenly saw the potential for that small being and realized that he did nothing. He didn't even allow a passing thought for it or claim it as his own in front of the doctor. He felt for another human, which was more than he had done during the whole movie.

And then, after a scene which proved he learned nothing and felt little else towards any other person, it was over.

I'm not trying to provoke an argument or a battle of the comments, but I would be interested in thoughts, especially if you've seen the movie. I tend to lean "pro-life" to begin with (and reading the abortion article referenced above literally made me nauseous, emotionally and physically)  ... but have recently wondered why the "pro-life" label doesn't also apply to the mother. It's her life... shouldn't she be the one to live it?

(Again, please post thoughts not arguments or antagonistic retorts. I am prepared to keep this civil.)