Million Dollar Baby

Rating: 10/10 (10 February 2005)

I hated Mystic River, I really did, I spoke against it like it was the worst movie of the YEAR, the decade, the century. I was just not a fan of the screenplay, although the performances were flawless. What can I say? Clint Eastwood is a guy that does not compromise. He will make movies that you either love or you hate, yet they will have their impact. As much as I hated Mystic River, I LOVED MILLION DOLLAR BABY. Million Dollar Baby is by far the most brutally honest film I have seen since Monster's Ball or even Requiem for a Dream. It does not apologize, it does not seek to swerve the viewer, it is just an honest depiction of life and the choices you are forced to make in the process.
It was not a manipulative movie at all, in a year of manipulative movies like Passion of the Christ, I found Million Dollar Baby to hold a higher bar for itself than what the rest of Hollywood is putting out there.
But the reason I loved this movie is because it forced me to come to terms with myself. There is a twist, a twist much discussed by the media, and ruined by Michael Medved (or as I call him Middle Ages Medved, really does this guy live on a completely different time line than the rest of us.) When I left the film, I did not like or respect myself as a person, because I found myself siding with Hillary Swank's character, Like her, I am a strong individual when I want something, but when dealt a bad hand I am positively sure that I would make the same choices she did. That realization has been gnawing at me for three weeks since I saw this film. This film stays with you, it keeps you up at night, it makes you think, it makes you re-evaluate your choices.
The film is a hot potato with the disabled right now, but they fail to see that the film is about one person's choices, in a culture where we love our movies to reflect the masses rather than the individual, people cannot see the forest for the trees. This film is a wake up call for film makers. It is a wake up call for all story tellers. And I'm so glad that a man that would normally be at the end of his career is the one to point the way.
Million Dollar Baby is a classic. It is a classic Now, and it will be a classic 100 years from now. How many films made in the last ten years can you say that about? Not many.