A mixture of happiness with a very tragic outcome

Rating: 9/10 (30 May 2006)

Of course, "Rocky" was the best series of boxing-related flicks involving Silvester Stallone, but "Million Dollar Baby" adds a twist to what the "Rocky" movies brought out to boxing enthusiasts.
The twist is that instead of a underdog male prizefighter like in "Rocky", "Million Dollar Baby" involves an underdog female prizefighter.
It was good that there was narration in the film, because some of the characterization was moderately complex---especially between the narrator (Morgan Freeman) who was a fight trainer and Clint Eastwood, who was also a fight trainer too.
The bout scenes remind me a little bit of the flick "Ali". You see Maggie (played by Hillary Swank) knock out opponent after opponent...usually in the opening rounds. and then by the middle of the movie you pull for her to go all the way---to win the women's welterweight championship.
Clint Eastwood, taking something out of Rocky's "Italian Stallion", decides on a stage name for Maggie, taking a Gaelic phrase that means "My Darling". The probable purpose of that foreign phrase was to make her unique from other female boxers.
When Maggie faces Billie the Blackbeard, things turn to disaster for her. Billie was somewhat similar to character Ivan Drago in "Rocky IV" who kills Rocky Balboa's friend and boxer, Apollo Creed during an exhibition fight. Like Ivan Drago, Billie doesn't care about boxing rules and thinks of boxing as a death match--as she brings a very powerful uppercut on Maggie after one round is over, and she falls head-first into the hard wooden stool before the referee could see that punch. You hear the cracks after the crash...and that means her spinal cord shattered...and hence, her boxing career was over in milliseconds....
Maggie is now in her hospital bed. She realizes that she is paralyzed from the neck down and has to be on a respirator for life. Clint comes in and tries to find out what he wants to do with her.
Seeing the blood in Maggie's mouth on her attempt of her suicide by biting her own tongue was moderately horrible. It was like someone punched her several times in the mouth.
Clint realized this and the only way to end Maggie's suffering was to put an end to her life..right on her hospital bed....by first dismantling the respirator, and then injecting her with a vial containing a fatal dose of a chemical.
The narrator does say that the vial that puts Hillary to death for sure was "adrenaline", but instead, I believe that the poison that killed her, in my speculation, is liquid cyanide, probably 10 times the dose that can be lethal to a person...As her vital sign indicators end up on flatlines....indicating that she is definitely dead....this is reminiscent of the ending of "Witness to An Execution."
Clint walks away, realizing that he had committed a mercy killing. You feel so sad for Maggie...a middle-aged lady who had a lot going for her...and in the happiest part of her life...only to have her life destroyed by Billie's nasty punch.