The story of life in the trenches

Rating: 9/10 (25 September 2005)

It is a good thing I did not read Salon.com's review of Million Dollar Baby before I watched it. They derided it by stating that "Clint Eastwood's boxing movie floats like a lead balloon and stings like a dead bee." Well, I remember watching a lot of boxing at the National Guard Armory in Tampa 30 years ago, and I can assure you that this was not a "boxing movie." The boxing was incidental and only provided the backdrop. This was a story of dreams and failures, of backstabbing and cruelty, of wanting more than life gives you, working for it, and then having some slime ball steal it all when you are not looking because of jealousy. It was about those who take and never give, like the people who grabbed FEMA money in Miami for a hurricane that never came near them. It was the story of life. Real life in the trenches, not life as experienced by those who never worked for anything. It is not about Bush's or Kerry's life, it is about you and me. In that, it succeeded beyond all imagination and I plan to watch it again.