Good movie, great twist and its very touching. Not guna give anything away so if you duno what im talkin about go nd watch it, dont worry, it'll be worth it.
'Million Dollar Baby' is a film experience at its most raw and powerful, uncompromising and unflinching in unravelling meaningful character relationships and ultimately, decisions that have to be made. It transcends the usual boxing flick by moving beyond the barriers of the ordinary and into a realm rife with moral ambiguity and a character's internal struggle to do the right thing, whatever that may be. It tugs at your heartstrings in the most passionate way but never feeling like it is actually doing so, and packs a visceral punch until emotion is at its peak; gut-wrenching seems something of an understatement.
Frankie Dunn is an elderly boxing trainer. Owns his own gym, and is currently taking his fighter to the top. He goes to Church every Sunday. He is also estranged from his daughter, and insists to the priest he writes to her every day. When he refuses a title fight for his man, assuring him he needs just a little more work, the boxer drops out for a new manager.
Maggie Fitzgerald is a fighter determined to win Frankie as her manager. She knows it is only him who can take her to the top to become a world champion, and she wants know-one else. But Frankie doesn't train girls.
Watching Maggie's seemingly futile attempts to get Frankie on side is what leads us to admire this woman. She befriends gym janitor Eddie 'Scrap-Iron' Dupris, and we discover her true composure. Maggie is lonely but desperately wants someone to believe in her. She wants to move past her 'white-trash' background and prove the sceptics wrong. To make something of herself, like she knows she can. With a little help from Eddie, she eventually wins Frankie round. But only till she's trained, he insists.
The following middle-section of the film follows the conventional boxer-movie path, albeit in a more understated and realistic manner. Dark and dreary lighting and mise-en-scene lend the picture a more haunting glow, and the fight scenes are brutally, shockingly intense. Eastwood's direction is about timing, character dynamics and the realisation of one girl's dream, and what it means to this man who fell into a routine where he failed to look beyond titles. Undercurrents of unspoken feeling and the soft, reserved tone are what make the film so sincere and definite. So unspectacularly alive.
Hilary Swank, Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman all give sterling performances, possibly the best of their dramatic careers. Maggie seems fierce and unaffected, but she is a woman out to prove herself, and Swank's mild-mannered persona exudes that vulnerability at just the right tone. Freeman plays a man haunted by the fights of his past but able to offer sound advice to a girl in whom he sees much of himself, and Eastwood's portrayal equals Swank's in that tough exterior protecting an uncertain interior shell.
Slowly, a sense of inspiration begins to shroud the opening tone of melancholy. As Maggie and Frankie begin to find in each other that person missing from their lives for so long, the atmosphere reaches uplifting. And then the third act strikes with a deafening chord. Paul Haggis' masterful screenplay takes a whole new direction, and while it doesn't feel detached or off-key it takes the picture - and the characters - to a whole new level of humanity. Maggie and Frankie have reached a mutual respect and understanding, but he has a challenge before him that so few could come to accept. His decision is inevitable, but it makes it no less painful, disturbing and heart-rending.
'Million Dollar Baby' is a remarkable achievement. Whether you agree or not with the final subject matter is immaterial in its devastating effect. The ending is awash with sadness and hurt, but tinged with hope. You can't care more for characters or a final outcome than how Eastwood has managed here. And even though the fight is over, the final punch will persistently, inevitably reverberate.
When I first heard about this film I thought that it would be something that would be a hit with everyone but me because it just doesn't sound like the kind of film I'm into. But, when I sat and watched it, I couldn't believe it, I was crying at the end and thinking that it was one of the most beautiful films I had seen in a long time.
To make a fighter you gotta strip them down to bare wood: you can't just tell 'em to forget everything you know if you gotta make 'em forget even their bones... make 'em so tired they only listen to you, only hear your voice, only do what you say and nothing else... show 'em how to keep their balance and take it away from the other guy... how to generate momentum off their right toe and how to flex your knees when you fire a jab... how to fight backin' up so that the other guy doesn't want to come after you. Then you gotta show 'em all over again. Over and over and over... till they think they're born that way.<
Directed by: Clint Eastwood Starring: Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank, Morgan Freeman, Jay Baruchel, Mike Colter
Genre: Drama/Sport
Running time: 132 minutes
My review:
In the wake of a painful estrangement from his daughter, boxing trainer Frankie Dunn has been unwilling to let himself get close to anyone for a very long time until Maggie Fitzgerald walks into his gym. In a life of constant struggle, Maggie got herself this far on raw talent, unshakable focus and a tremendous force of will. But more than anything, she wants someone to believe in her. The last thing Frankie needs is that kind of responsibility, let alone that kind of risk, but won over by Maggies sheer determination, he begrudgingly agrees to take her on. In turns exasperating and inspiring each other, the two come to discover that they share a common spirit that transcends the pain and loss of their pasts, and they find in each other a sense of family they lost long ago. Yet, they both face a battle that will demand more heart and courage than any they have ever known. This film was really depressing but the most dramatic of all of the boxing films that I have watched before. Hilary Swank delivers a brilliant Oscar winning performance as Maggie Fitzgerald because Hilary really looked like a true boxer and a boxer with a great passion and really makes the character inspiring and pleasureable to watch. She seems like a really nice person whos life was falling apart but she gains the spirit. Clint Eastwood was really good in an acting performance as Frankie Dunn. I really liked Morgan Freeman in his Oscar winning performance. I really like Clint Eastwood directing films but I prefer Mystic River to this, Unforgiven, Flags Of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima. I was surprised that this film won Best Picture Oscar. In my opinion, Finding Neverland should have won it. This is still an absolutely brilliant boxing piece of filmmaking from Clint Eastwood.
The cast was awesome. I usually don't like boxing movies but this one was an exception. She had such a desire to excell and she did. I cried like a baby at the end.
I can't remember the last time I cried that hard in a movie theater. And oooh! Clint... getting soooo hot in his old age! Holy hell! Amazing cast, the first thing I've ever really liked Swank in. Brilliant.
WOW!!! this is the most moving movie ive watched yet! i like all the chararcters and how they communicate with each other, like clintwood and freeman. at first i didnt get that this was all pointed to Dunn's daughter. i never knew that a priest would say such things!!! arent they suppose to be inspiring?danger as a funny character, but it was horrible when he was fighting w/the other guys. the relationship between maggie and frankie is so strong and moving. i believe that she should have automatically been disqualified. She kinda looked like she had steroids. i wish that i was as buff as hilary swank was! it was so so depressing having maggie kill herself and attempt before Frankie helped her.
i still dont understand how someone can be in the movie and direct simotaneously?
i do understand how this won best picture
A masterpiece, plain and simple. A total knockout of a movie right to the heart. Absolutely perfect. Unforgettable and Powerful. Brilliant, remarkable and groundbreaking. It's compelling, astonishing, deeply moving, outstanding and breathtaking. Eastwood and Freeman have never been better. They have a unique and well-developed chemistry. Morgan Freeman gives a soft spoken and riveting performance. Clint Eastwood is raw and excellent. Hilary Swank is magnificent. It's probaly the best performance of her career. A heart wrenching and heart breaking film. A real punch of power, humor, personal triumph and emotion. It's superb drama at it's best. A towering achivement by a top artist in top form. Every scene is shot perfectly with great style. It makes you think dreams are worth fighting for. One of the finest movies ever made. A real classic that will stand with Director, Eastwoods best like Unforgiven and Mystic River.
Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" is a masterpiece, pure and simple, deep and true. It tells the story of an aging fight trainer and a hillbilly girl who thinks she can be a boxer. It is narrated by a former boxer who is the trainer's best friend. But it's not a boxing movie. It is a movie about a boxer. What else it is, all it is, how deep it goes, what emotional power it contains, I cannot suggest in this review, because I will not spoil the experience of following this story into the deepest secrets of life and death. This is the best film of the year.
Eastwood plays the trainer, Frankie, who runs a seedy gym in Los Angeles and reads poetry on the side. Hilary Swank plays Maggie, from southwest Missouri, who has been waitressing since she was 13 and sees boxing as the one way she can escape waitressing for the rest of her life.
Otherwise, she says, "I might as well go back home and buy a used trailer and get a deep fryer and some Oreos." Morgan Freeman is Scrap, who was managed by Frankie into a title bout. Now he lives in a room at the gym and is Frankie's partner in conversations that have coiled down through the decades. When Frankie refuses to train a "girly," it's Scrap who convinces him to give Maggie a chance: "She grew up knowing one thing. She was trash."
These three characters are seen with a clarity and truth that is rare in the movies. Eastwood, who doesn't carry a spare ounce on his lean body, doesn't have any padding in his movie, either: Even as the film approaches the deep emotion of its final scenes, he doesn't go for easy sentiment, but regards these people, level-eyed, as they do what they have to do.
Some directors lose focus as they grow older. Others gain it, learning how to tell a story that contains everything it needs and absolutely nothing else. "Million Dollar Baby" is Eastwood's 25th film as a director, and his best. Yes, "Mystic River" is a great film, but this one finds the simplicity and directness of classical storytelling; it is the kind of movie where you sit very quietly in the theater and are drawn deeply into lives that you care very much about.
Morgan Freeman is the narrator, just as he was in "The Shawshank Redemption," which this film resembles in the way the Freeman character describes a man who became his lifelong study. The voice is flat and factual: You never hear Scrap going for an affect or putting a spin on his words. He just wants to tell us what happened. He talks about how the girl walked into the gym, how she wouldn't leave, how Frankie finally agreed to train her, and what happened then. But Scrap is not merely an observer; the film gives him a life of his own when the others are offscreen. It is about all three of these people.
Hilary Swank is astonishing as Maggie. Every note is true. She reduces Maggie to a fierce intensity. Consider the scene where she and Scrap sit at a lunch counter, and Scrap tells how he lost the sight in one eye, how Frankie blames himself for not throwing in the towel. It is an important scene for Freeman, but I want you to observe how Swank has Maggie do absolutely nothing but listen. No "reactions," no little nods, no body language except perfect stillness, deep attention and an unwavering gaze.
There's another scene, at night driving in a car, after Frankie and Maggie have visited Maggie's family. The visit didn't go well. Maggie's mother is played by Margo Martindale as an ignorant and selfish monster. "I got nobody but you, Frankie," Maggie says. This is true, but do not make the mistake of thinking there is romance between them. It's different, and deeper than that. She tells Frankie a story involving her father, whom she loved, and an old dog she loved, too.
Look at the way the cinematographer, Tom Stern, uses the light in this scene. Instead of using the usual "dashboard lights" that mysteriously seem to illuminate the whole front seat, watch how he has their faces slide in and out of shadow, how sometimes we can't see them at all, only hear them. Watch how the rhythm of this lighting matches the tone and pacing of the words, as if the visuals are caressing the conversation.
It is a dark picture overall: a lot of shadows, many night scenes, characters who seem to recede into private fates. It is a "boxing movie" in the sense that it follows Maggie's career and has several fight scenes. She wins from the beginning, but that's not the point; "Million Dollar Baby" is about a woman determined to make something of herself, and a man who doesn't want to do anything for this woman, and will finally do everything.
The screenplay is by Paul Haggis, who has worked mostly on TV but with this earns an Oscar nomination. Other nominations, possibly Oscars, will go to Swank, Eastwood, Freeman, the picture and many technicians -- and possibly the original score composed by Eastwood, which always does what is required and never distracts.
Haggis adapted the story from Rope Burns: Stories From the Corner, a 2000 book by Jerry Boyd, a 70-year-old fight manager who wrote it as "F.X. Toole." The dialogue is poetic but never fancy. "How much she weigh?" Maggie asks Frankie about the daughter he hasn't seen in years. "Trouble in my family comes by the pound." And when Frankie sees Scrap's feet on the desk: "Where are your shoes?" Scrap: "I'm airing out my feet." The foot conversation continues for almost a minute, showing the film's patience in evoking character.
Eastwood is attentive to supporting characters, who make the surrounding world seem more real. The most unexpected is a Catholic priest who is seen, simply, as a good man; movies all seem to put a negative spin on the clergy these days. Frankie goes to mass every morning and says his prayers every night, and Father Horvak (Brian F. O'Byrne) observes that anyone who attends daily mass for 23 years tends to be carrying a lot of guilt. Frankie turns to him for advice at a crucial point, and the priest doesn't respond with church orthodoxy but with a wise insight: "If you do this thing, you'll be lost, somewhere so deep you will never find yourself." Listen, too, when Haggis has Maggie use the word "frozen," which is what an uneducated backroads girl might say, but is also the single perfect word that expresses what a thousand could not.
Movies are so often made of effects and sensation these days. This one is made of three people and how their actions grow out of who they are and why. Nothing else. But isn't that everything?
This film deservedly won Oscars for acting, direction and picture. The film is beautifully constructed by Eastwood (who should have won an Oscar for his performance too). Watch this film at all costs as it is possibly the best boxing movie ever.
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Hilary Swank steals the oscar gold hands down. This was a painfully beautiful masterpiece that stirs the soul and never lets go. It is endearing and brilliantly acted. It is no amazement why this film has taken huge accolades.
I love this movie coz by watching it I really understood the meaning of life and death....ppl are ready to die only when they did what they really wanted to do their whole life, when they get the chance to do it and when they take that chance....we should all try really hard to make our dreams come true so we never have to ask ourselves that famous question: ''What if?''....
I didnt know what to expect til I watched this movie but it surprised me! Two very different people and their struggle which somehow gets easier when they lean on each other!
I liked it very much because this isn't a traditional "american dream" boxing movie. When Maggie became a daughter substitute to Frankie Dunn it started to lead the story better. With this as an example you can see there is no need for special effects to make a great film. BUT prolonging the end became a disadvantage. Otherwise I would have given 4 or even 4½ stars.
not what i expected..quite shocked by the way that the movie turned out to be..i honestly thought she'd get better, train harder and win...but she got worse and worse until she finally asked to be killed..it was a different twist..i must admit it was another way to end it other than winning
MCT:September 7, 2008
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