Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Directed by Clint Eastwood
Despondent over a painful estrangement from his daughter, trainer Frankie Dunn isn't prepared for boxer Maggie Fitzgerald to enter his life. But Maggie's determined to go pro and to convince Dunn and his cohort to help her.
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24 films that influenced Million Dollar Baby
What critics say influenced Million Dollar Baby
Eastwood has crafted a boxing movie that holds more akin to the 1956 Paul Newman starrer, “Somebody Up There Likes Me,” or “Requiem For A Heavyweight” than the “Rocky” franchise, to which it is most compared.
At least when Burgess Meredith did this stuff in the “Rocky” movies he had the good hammy sense to treat it like the hokum it was.
But she wears him down, and we figure we're in for another "Rocky."
The characters and dialogue bob and weave between Fat City authenticity, Rocky blue-collar romanticism and movie-of-the-week contrivance as the film pokes at the underbelly of society.
There is even a Villain, in the person of dirty-fighting former prostitute Billie "The Blue Bear" (Lucia Rijker), this movie's Mr. T to Maggie's Rocky.
Contrary to how the trailers make it appear, "Million Dollar Baby" is no mere distaff "Rocky."
Eastwood has crafted a boxing movie that holds more akin to the 1956 Paul Newman starrer, “Somebody Up There Likes Me,” or “Requiem For A Heavyweight” than the “Rocky” franchise, to which it is most compared.
As a boxing movie, this is every bit as grim as The Set-Up (1949) and Fat City (1972), and as an underlit look at a seedy American subculture, set mainly in a few lairlike locations, it's as dark and doom ridden as the 1961 The Hustler (with which it paradoxically shares a 'Scope format) and Eastwood's own Bird (1988).
The characters and dialogue bob and weave between Fat City authenticity, Rocky blue-collar romanticism and movie-of-the-week contrivance as the film pokes at the underbelly of society.
The best boxing movies—Robert Rossen’s “Body and Soul” (1947), John Huston’s “Fat City” (1972), Scorsese’s “Raging Bull” (1980)—have a special redolence that is as easily recognizable, and as richly satisfying, as the leather-and-manure aroma of a stable.
Eastwood's taut scenes with O'Byrne recall Brando's with Karl Malden in On the Waterfront, laced with even more ferocious questioning and dismay.
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Right off the top of my head I can name three wonderful boxing pictures ( Rocky , Raging Bull and Million Dollar Baby ).
The best boxing movies—Robert Rossen’s “Body and Soul” (1947), John Huston’s “Fat City” (1972), Scorsese’s “Raging Bull” (1980)—have a special redolence that is as easily recognizable, and as richly satisfying, as the leather-and-manure aroma of a stable.
Million Dollar Baby is getting tremendous early buzz from critics for good reason; it's destined to stand up for decades and be compared with Raging Bull as the best boxing movie of all time.
True to the unspoken desperation and disillusionment that toughens or chews up career-undercard boxers, tinged with post-feminist complexity and rich with classical metaphor, "Million Dollar Baby" has only one competitor for the title of best boxing movie since "Raging Bull" -- Karyn Kusama's fervent, genre-transcending "Girlfight," also about a female fighter.
Then, in a single slow-motion moment, it turns into a very different kind of movie - closer to "The Sea Inside," another of this week's releases, than to prizefighting pictures of the "Rocky" and "Raging Bull" varieties.
The film starts out along the lines of such great boxing films as Raging Bull and the recent Girlfight , as it highlights the competitive world of female boxing.
As a boxing movie, this is every bit as grim as The Set-Up (1949) and Fat City (1972), and as an underlit look at a seedy American subculture, set mainly in a few lairlike locations, it's as dark and doom ridden as the 1961 The Hustler (with which it paradoxically shares a 'Scope format) and Eastwood's own Bird (1988).
With its down-and-out characters and dramatic interplay of darkness and light, the film has the texture of a somber palooka noir like Robert Wise's The Set-Up, but it's touched by a dogged optimism that's anathema to the genre.
Eastwood has crafted a boxing movie that holds more akin to the 1956 Paul Newman starrer, “Somebody Up There Likes Me,” or “Requiem For A Heavyweight” than the “Rocky” franchise, to which it is most compared.
She's an elfin tomboy fantasist in a line stretching back to the silent stars Mary Pickford and Bebe Daniels, and only Julie Harris in The Member of the Wedding has been better at it than Swank.
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The best boxing movies—Robert Rossen’s “Body and Soul” (1947), John Huston’s “Fat City” (1972), Scorsese’s “Raging Bull” (1980)—have a special redolence that is as easily recognizable, and as richly satisfying, as the leather-and-manure aroma of a stable.
Henry Bumstead, the brilliant production designer who helped create the minimalist canvas—he was art director on Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958) and has been working for Eastwood since 1992—will turn 90 in March, and Eastwood himself will be 75 a couple months later.