2004's Best Picture Masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (12 July 2005)

Today I finally had the pleasure of watching "Million Dollar Baby" on the DVD and I got to tell you that this is one of best boxing films and also the greatest Clint Eastwood film ever made at the same time.
The film concentrates on the principal actors Clint Eastwood as the trainer, Morgan Freeman as the Narrator and friend, and Hilary Swank as the woman who wanted out of her old life to be a boxer, in which we get to study these look at these characters as human beings rather than just actors playing a part.
Clint Eastwood plays Frankie Dunn, a former professional boxer and trainer who runs a local boxing gym with his buddy Eddie "Scrap-Iron" Dupris (played by Morgan Freeman) in which Jimmie knows the ropes on how to fight, how to move and how to win. In the prologue of the film, we see Frankie trying to heal a scar from a boxer before the boxing doctor comes to check. The character of Frankie Dunn doesn't have faith in the people he trains, after in a scene he tells the boxer that he doesn't want him to fight to get the title or else he'll get hurt; especially when Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) tries to come in and box at the gym, he tells Maggie that he doesn't train girls because it will look bad on his reputation.
Maggie Fitzgerald has always dream of becoming a boxer as she attends every fight event that takes place in order to talk to Frankie, but he refuses to train her because she is too old. It doesn't stop Maggie as every day and night she trains at the boxing gym where Eddie gives out advice and tells her how to posture her movement. She doesn't quit until Frankie decides to help her. During the prologue of the film, Eddie explains the story behind Maggie as we see her working as a waitress in a dead-end job where she steals most of the leftover food and takes it back to her house where she eats the food.
Eddie is the narrator, and the character that Morgan Freeman portrays is similar to Red Boyle from "The Shawshank Redemption" in which the character talks about the events that took place especially getting to know the characters a little better. Eddie is blind from one eye as he explains to Maggie that he lost it in his 109th fight when Frankie was his manager; he also lives in the gym where he has a small room near the entrance where he sleeps, eats and watches TV. Like Frankie, Eddie takes in a poor retard from the streets named Danger Barch (Jay Baruchel) in which the retard has dreams of winning the championship title; though the kid may never have a chance, Eddie will believe in him.
"Million Dollar Baby" is more than your ordinary boxing flick; it's also a character movie where we get to know these three characters and actually have feelings for them as we root them on. I was cheering when I watched this film as I watch the character Maggie win all the fights, including having a smile on my face when we saw Maggie and Frankie talking during a road trip. The last forty minutes of the film is a sad tragedy as we lose one of the main characters of the film; it is truly a great and powerful scene.
Last year I saw Clint Eastwood's "Mystic River" a tragedy about three men and the nightmare that came back to haunt them; that was one of the best films I've ever seen from a Clint Eastwood movie; now after watching "Million Dollar Baby" on the DVD, Clint has completed his tragedy masterpiece where I will never forget that people do have chances in life.