Eastwood's supreme effort.

Rating: Null/10 (28 February 2005)

Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby is an outstanding piece of film making. In a career spanning fifty years he has had many defining moments, including The Fistful Trilogy, Dirty Harry and Unforgiven, but this movie tops them all.
I went to see this movie today, following last nights Oscar scoop, not only as an avid Eastwood fan, but to see what all the fuss was about.
Now having seen it, I can say without fear of contradiction, that if anything not enough fuss is being made about this film, a film I believe will one day rank as one of the best ever made.
It does not have the epic feel of say Gone With The Wind, The Ten Commandments or Lawrence of Arabia, but it's impact on the viewer is just as powerful if not more so, as Eastwood takes on many religious and moral arguments.
This film will also be hard to pigeon-hole as it can easily fit into so many different genres. Whats starts out primarily as a cut-throat boxing picture turns into a moving story of compassion and tragedy made all the more moving due to the outstanding performances by its three leads.
Eastwood plays Frankie Dunn, a craggy old boxing trainer and gym owner not too far removed from Burgess Merideth's Mickey of Rocky fame. He is a lonely man with a black and white outlook on life, a daughter who has disowned him and religious convictions that even his local priest seems to try and discourage.
He is helped in the gym by old friend and one-time title contender Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris played by Morgan Freeman. Known not to affectionately in the gym as 'Old School', Dunn feels responsible for Eddie and blames himself for the bloody bout that cost Dupris his career. He therefore takes care of him financially and emotionally.
Enter Hilary Swank as novice-with-potential, Maggie Fitzgerald. She feels certain that inside she has the makings of being a champion and asks Frankie to be her trainer. At first Frankie refuses on the grounds that she's, "too old" and that he "doesn't train girls" but in the end he reluctantly agrees to take the young boxer under his wing.
We are then presented with a series of montage shots where we see the awkward kitten's progress from a hopeless case into a potential queen of the ring, and its not long before Fitzgerald is laying her opponents out to dry in the first round.
This part of the movie, very much in the vein of Champion or Rocky, is both brutal and violent. Its almost as if we can feel the blows and smell the canvas. Exiting though it is, it does lead us to question the morality behind such a sport, and in this I suppose lies one of Eastwood's questioning messages.
It is touching to see the scenes between Frankie and Maggie during this early period, as we realise that the more he teaches her, the more respect and affection they seem to share. This is yet another factor of the movie. It is a genuine love story but not by your conventional Hollywood standards. This is not love story based on passion or lust and it is in no way sensual, it runs deeper than that. The relationship between them blossoms to an almost Father/daughter level.
I do not plan to give away any more of this film than I have already, as I wish the reader to see it and appreciate it in the same way I did, without any previous assumptions or opinions, although it deems worth mentioning that the rest of the film holds heartbreak and tragedy from here on in, and focuses on a fight of a very different nature.
Clint Eastwood has really developed as an actor over the years. If you were to compare his "Why, Shucks Ma'am" demeanour in the early Rawhide years to his moving performance in Million Dollar Baby, you would hardly believe it was the same talent on screen. How he missed out on the best actor Oscar again is beyond me. The guy had me in tears more than once.
However he is probably the best Director in Hollywood today and at least that was taken into account on Oscar night, an award I'm sure Eastwood would have personally preferred..
The film walked away with four Oscars altogether, not only Eastwood's Best Film and Best Director awards but Best Actress for Hilary Swank and a long over due Best Supporting Actor for Morgan Freeman.
This film is priceless. A gritty sports drama, a love story, a buddy movie and a tragic weepy to boot.
But beware you may cry at the end....I did.