To Train or Not to Train ***

Rating: 8/10 (1 February 2006)

Clint Eastwood directed this Oscar-winning film debating the above question. Should he or shouldn't he train a woman for fighting in the ring? Am sure he knew that he made the wrong decision.
Hilary Swank, his Million Dollar Baby fighter, won an Oscar for her brutally realistic efforts as a fighting heroine whose career was cut tragically short at its height.
After Eastwood finally decides to train her, the film deals with her successes. It's, unfortunately, too good to be true. There is another young woman hot on her heels and eventually, she throws a punch that knocks us all for a loop.
Morgan Freeman, last year's best supporting actor, for his role as the trainer, moderates our story.
With Swank fatally hurt, we turn our attention to moral issues of letting patients die. We also see the immoral behavior of her family, they showed themselves to be there only for the buck.
If Russell Crowe is this year's "Cinderella Man," Miss Swank is certainly our damsel in distress.
Eastwood's dilemma, after his ill-fated decision to train Swank, is whether or not to pull the plug. He consults a priest just before he does what he felt is morally right. I cannot fathom that the father would justify this. Am sure he consulted with him on this grave issue of the day, euthanasia.