Three-Disc DVD Set Highlights An Eastwood Masterwork With a Powerful Turn by Swank

Rating: 9/10 (31 March 2008)

It has been quite a few years since Clint Eastwood was reamed by critics for starring and sometimes directing ultra-violent vigilante action thrillers. What they neglected to acknowledge is that Eastwood has always had a strong sense of story, and age has really sharpened his film-making techniques to a deeply resonant emotional level without the need for gimmickry or special effects. Nowhere is his immense talent more evident than in this acclaimed 2004 film, a low-key, patiently paced, three-person drama that takes a surprising turn that lifts the movie into something quite extraordinary. The only significant thing miscalculated is the movie's title, which seems almost too comically ironic for such an enriching film.
Written by Paul Haggis ("Crash"), the basic story is simple, almost deceptively corny sounding a bit like the distaff version of "Rocky". A spunky female fighter from the wrong side of the tracks, Maggie Fitzgerald, wants a grizzled old trainer, Frankie Dunn, to guide her to become a professional boxer. Of course, the trainer owns a third-rate gym with an array of male fighters encompassing all the stereotypes. He also has an aged assistant, Scrap, who is of course, willing to champion Maggie's potential more than Frankie, at least at the beginning. Eastwood, however, belies the predictability and takes his story to a far deeper and more nuanced level than one would presume from this set-up. It turns out that Maggie is pushing 32 and considered over-the-hill for getting into the game. Frankie is estranged from his daughter, reads Yeats, studies Gaelic and goes to Mass every day mostly to annoy the young priest. Scrap was a contender trained by Frankie but lost an eye and his boxing future when a match went awry.
How these three characters interact with each other supplies the film's main pleasure, not really the obligatory boxing scenes that will assuredly make one wince by their realism. In fact, one of the more painful scenes in the movie is not in the boxing ring but in a new house that Maggie buys for her ungrateful mother, when Maggie comes to the revelation that she has no one but Frankie to provide emotional support in her life. This is not to say the film lacks humor, as Eastwood infuses a clever sensibility that subtly draws you into these characters' lives without hesitation. The story follows Maggie's ascension in the boxing world, and what happens beyond that development is devastating. While it is enough to say there is tragedy involved, leave it to Eastwood, in his straightforward, confident directorial approach, to make the last part of the story surprisingly life-affirming and not at all exploitative. Only a film-making master could pull off such a feat in such an honest and emotionally affecting manner.
As an actor, Eastwood continues to impress primarily by his innate connection to Frankie. Probably not since his surprisingly open-hearted turn in "The Bridges of Madison County" has he made himself so vulnerable on screen, granted this time under the veneer of his hard-earned, leather-faced machismo. His sense of authority is never in question here, and he shows it off with great relish, especially as his character realizes how much more complicated life becomes as he grows older. Morgan Freeman plays Scrap with his customary humanistic skill. In fact, he provides the narration as a voice-over letter to Frankie's daughter in a manner that will remind you of his similar turn in "The Shawshank Redemption". That's not to say his performance is unsurprising, as he and Eastwood have an easy rapport that plays to both actors' strengths. But the standout is Hilary Swank portraying Maggie with an emotional directness and piercing vulnerability that cuts right to the heart. Not only is she physically impressive in the gym and in the ring, but she elevates what could have been a one-note character into someone far more complex, intelligent and affecting. The film is wonderfully profound with superlative acting.
The three-disc 2005 DVD set is solid but rather light on extras. Disc One contains a pristine print transfer of the film but no commentaries from Eastwood or the cast. There are three extras on Disc Two. The first is an 18-minute featurette, "Born to Fight", which features interviews with the three stars and three other cast members, in particular, boxer/actor Lucia Rijker (who plays Maggie's fatalistic opponent) who discusses the ways in which the film parallels her career in boxing. The second is "The Producers' Round 15", a 13-minute short on the film's production process featuring Haggis, as well as producers Albert Ruddy and Tom Rosenberg. The last extra is a roundtable discussion, "James Lipton Takes on Three" with the three stars being interviewed in typical sequestered fashion by the erudite host of "Inside the Actors' Studio". Disc Three is the soundtrack CD of Eastwood's atmospheric musical score orchestrated by Lennie Niehaus conducting the Hollywood Studio Symphony.