Review of Million Dollar Baby (2004) by Won Kyun K — 07 Mar 2013

85%.

"Boxing is about giving respect for yourself and taking it away from the other guy." - Morgan Freeman.

"To make a fighter you have to strip them down to bare wood." - Morgan Freeman.

Clint Eastwood has acted in, directed so many great films, and Million Dollar Baby is one of his best works as both an actor and director. It is highly emotional, and loaded with great acting. Is character development is clearly manifested throughout the whole movie, and there is a lot of it. There is a lot of drama in it, and plenty of conflict, and I think the more of it the better the movie. The film really did deserve the best picture award that it got in the year of 2004. It goes into the class of great boxing films like Raging Bull, and The Fighter.

Morgan Freeman narrates the story with a rougher voice that sounds like a mix of his normal speaking voice and Clint Eastwood's Batman like voice. It is about a boxing coach named Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood) who has been a boxing coach all of his life, and he has a girl named Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) that wants him to coach her. He refuses at first, and he says that he doesn't coach girls. After she starts practicing at his gym and begins to get a little better, he agrees under strict conditions. She can't ask questions, and at first he will only coach her and he refuses to be her manager. He agreed because she got mad at him because boxing makes her feel good and he was trying to deny her of that. When she begins to struggle he becomes her manager, and not just her coach. They become a really strong pair, and she wins every fight she is in, and often in the first round. It is like the female Rocky at first. But when she gets into the championship round she faces a really dirty fighter who after a round ends hits her in the back of her head knocking her down and her neck brakes when it hits the chair she has to sit on. She is paralyzed from the neck down.

Maggie Fitzgerald is a very nice girl who you like a lot. She is tough though. Hilary Swank really did deserve the award for best actress that year, because she not only pulled off some amazing acting, but she got in great shape for the role. She was really muscular for this film, and the people that deserve Oscars are the ones who can alter their personality, and change physically for a role. Her character was a very motivated and driven one. She has a terrible family that is just pure trash. The first week that she was in the hospital after being paralyzed they went to Disney world and universal studios. They are self absorbed and awful people. One scene she buys them a new house and they just complain. Her mother gets mad because if the government finds out about this house she won't get wealth fare anymore. They are the most selfish people. It made me wonder how come Maggie seemed so cool.

Frankie is a really tough and macho guy, but a lot of Clint's characters are. He is a good man though. Something that they led me to believe was that he has a really strained relationship with his daughter, because they discuss her a lot. That is part of Clint's character. This was one of his best acting jobs. He teaches Maggie many things. He teaches her footwork, how to breath when you are fighting and many other things. He is a great teacher and manager. Maggie at first was lousy but she became great because of his training. You liked him in the end.

This was a really great movie that was painful to watch though, because of how sad the paralysis part was. But it shows you how good movies are that they can make you that sad. Clint Eastwood did a great job directing and acting in this film, and Hilary Swank is amazing too. There are other characters that I would love to talk about, but I want to leave enough for the people who haven't seen this yet. Greta movie.