It deserved every award it got...

Rating: 10/10 (17 February 2006)

I was reminded of a great observation I'd once read about film acting when I was watching Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby." I believe Roger Ebert said(I could be mistaken there), in an analysis of great film actors, that Marlon Brando showed us all everything that could be brought to a film performance, that Paul Newman learned that from Brando, and then went on to learn what could be left out. Clint Eastwood learned from a lot of great directors in his days as one of the greatest movie stars in the world, and he's become one of the greatest directors we have, because he's confident enough, and disciplined enough, to know exactly what he needs to show you, so that you understand why the characters have made the choices they've made.
Million Dollar Baby is one of the two best films Eastwood has given us(his other Best Picture winner, "Unforgiven" would be the other one), and it's superb because every single scene, every single line, builds on the one before it. It's a masterpiece of story-telling economy(all the more miraculous because Eastwood shot Paul Haggis' first draft of the script) that pulls you in to the classic story of an underdog boxer that gets a shot at the big time only to then break your heart without ever taking a false or cheap step. This movie doesn't depend on a twist-- the ending is where this story was heading the entire time. It's just that the writer, the director, and the actors(Eastwood, Hilary Swank, and Morgan Freeman, all perfectly cast and at the top of their game) have too much story-telling integrity to let you ever get ahead of them.
It's simple, it's powerful, it's honest, and it's heartbreaking. You can't ask for much more than this.