A Profound, Mature Boxing Movie

Rating: 9/10 (15 October 2015)

There are two movies that Million Dollar Baby will immediately draw comparisons to--Raging Bull and Rocky. The reasons are obvious: boxing movies are a well-established genre, and any movie that enters the genre has to go up against the best. The good news is that Million Dollar Baby is not really like either movie, and attains a spot all its own in the genre. It does so by being a movie that locates its boxing plot within a very profound and mature view of the world, a view that sees the world's ugliness very clearly and moves its characters through it very realistically. It is a very truthful movie and a moving experience for the moviegoer.
The plot involves an aging boxing trainer, Frankie, played by Clint Eastwood, who trains champions but has a bad habit of protecting them when their opportunity comes. He is currently training a potential champion, but the prospect leaves his gym when he realizes that Frankie is gun-shy. Frankie is devastated by this, but finds a new prospect in an enthusiastic young woman, Maggie, with knockout power and a completely dysfunctional personal life. The victories begin to mount, and it looks like Frankie's (and Maggie's) chance at redemption is on its way. The rest I can't reveal without tripping the spoiler alert, but I will say that those expecting a girl Rocky are going to be thrown off-balance.
In its outlook, Million Dollar Baby is a complete contrast to Rocky. While Rocky was made by a new, young filmmaker (Stallone) who captures what is ultimately a story of optimism, Million Dollar Baby is a story made by an old filmmaker (Eastwood) with a viewpoint which, if not pessimistic, is very sophisticated in identifying the particular aspects of life that are truly painful and difficult. This may seem like a downer, but the fact is that what you see is real--it is very refreshing to watch a real life and characters who show substantial courage as they make their way through. Frankie faces estrangement from his daughter, Frankie's janitor and resident sage, Scrap (played by Morgan Freeman) faces having gone one fight too many (he was a boxer) and Maggie, with her disaster of a family, faces the challenge of discovering some form of identity. The triumph of these characters is that they live at all, and in some respects they do transcend their circumstances. Unlike Rocky, it is an imperfect transcendence, and in some respects it often goes horribly wrong. But nonetheless, the richness of the conflicts and their resolutions makes this movie what it is. This and they amazing performances by veterans Eastwood, Swank and Freeman, and you really get the feeling of having seen something very deep.
With Million Dollar Baby, you might not by singing "Gonna Fly Now" or the "Eye of the Tiger" but, as the film says, you had better "protect yourself at all times," because life can be even tougher than a boxing match.