Hilary Swank and Clint Eastwood

MOVIE CRITIQUE:
I have to admit that there are few things that have given me more pleasure recently than watching two of our cinematic icons, Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman, strut their stuff in a movie like "Million Dollar Baby." These two weathered lions of the cinema show every inch of their age and longevity on their worn, craggy faces. Having the joy of seeing them star together in this movie is truly a wonderful treat.

Furthermore, Morgan Freeman, as the costar, "Scrap" (actually Eddie "Scrap-Iron" Dupris), also serves as the background narrator in this movie in much the same way that he did in the 1994 classic movie, "The Shawshank Redemption." Freeman is blessed with such a wonderful voice that he could read from a telephone book and he still would capture my attention. A sidebar note would be that I am mystified as to why he is not making millions on the side doing voiceovers for television commercials.

"Million Dollar Baby" is one of the best movies of the year, perhaps THE best movie of the year, which is a rather surprising statement coming from me insofar as I hate boxing. I always have, as I believe that boxing is a cruel, bestial sport in which the sole object is to beat your opponent into unconsciousness. Seeing this occur in movies or on television gives me no sense of joy or pride in something that I consider to be an inhumane sporting activity.

But "Million Dollar Baby" is so much more than a movie about boxing. Well, we could have guessed this as soon as we heard that Clint Eastwood had a hand in both directing and starring in this film. He has become the icon of American directorial brilliance over the last several years. In fact, he is one of the very few directors who has scored back to back successes in the direction of his two recent movies with this 2004 triumph following his sensational 2003 movie, the dark and bleak modern day film noir classic, "Mystic River." Both movies were awarded rare and richly deserved grades of A+.

This is quite a showing from a man who earlier had made his living starring as the "Man with No Name" in cheap Italian spaghetti Westerns and later as Dirty Harry, a rogue cop in San Francisco with an outsized gun.

Everything about "Million Dollar Baby" is top notch, from the atmosphere of the cheap and tawdry gym where they all spend their daytime hours to the two main stars who give an aging, scrappy, and down and out piece of trailer trash a chance to be somebody, to reach for the gold of her dream, and perhaps even to escape being defined by her miserable family background. Suffice it to say that Hilary Swank repeats her earlier Oscar-won performance in "Boys Don't Cry" with another sensational performance in this film. To her credit, she has had some bad roles, but she has never given anything less than a stellar performance in everything that she has done. And she is every bit the equal of Freeman and Eastwood in this film.

"Million Dollar Baby" is not a perfect film because the last part of this movie brings up two very important questions that are not answered in the movie. Unfortunately, I cannot discuss them here, for to do so would be to give away critical elements of the plot and possibly to ruin the movie for those of you who may not like knowing how it ends before you have seen the film.

That being said, this film is truly an extraordinary work of art from Eastwood in his growing resumé of cinematic masterpieces. And wonderful performances by Freeman and Swank only add icing to the cake of a compelling story. Needless to say, kudos also go to this film's cinematographer for a very atmospheric visual treat.
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SIDEBAR NOTE:
The last quarter of this movie delves into several themes that may prove to be troublesome for some film lovers as this section of the film deals with being a quadriplegic and assisted suicide. Eastwood, a noted political conservative, has been quoted as saying that the story for this film was taken without alteration from the O'Toole book cited above.

He has chosen not to change the ending of the story, and that's all right with me. My rating of this movie has to do only with how well the story is told and how well the characters are played. I choose not to rate this movie from a moral or a religious perspective because I have to assume that most of you are mature enough to make up your own minds about these contentious issues and whether or not they affect your enjoyment of this excellent movie.
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MOVIE SYNOPSIS:
"Million Dollar Baby" pretty much has it all as a story about two old men way past the prime of their lives who come out of their self-imposed shells to coach a gutsy female boxer.

Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank), the female boxer, had quickly become a pest because she wouldn't go away and she wouldn't take no for an answer. They give in because it would be easier to coach her than it would to put up with her pestering them all the time for a chance to be coached and then be able to go on to chase her dream of being a champion female boxer. Besides, she shows them from the getgo that she has the heart and now the only question is whether or not she also has the discipline.

Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood) is the owner of a down at its heels boxing gym located in a poorer section of Los Angeles that is filled with a colorful selection of boxing wannabes and misfits. He has had a long life as a boxing coach and he has had his ups and his downs throughout it all.

Right now, Frankie has long been nurturing and training "Big Willie" Little (Mike Colter), his prime boxing star whom he has been patiently bringing up the ladder to a point where he is finally ready for a chance at a championship bout (and a long delayed chance for a big payday for Frankie).

In Frankie's mind this boxer will be ready for that chance after another three or four bouts, but Big Willie, who is chomping at the bit for his shot at stardom, is not nearly as patient as he is. Late one evening he calls on Frankie to tell him that he doesn't want to wait any longer for this chance, so he is signing on with a rival trainer and manager.

Crestfallen that this long term investment and a chance for a big pay day has flown the coop, Frankie commiserates with his long time associate, Eddie "Scrap-Iron" Dupris (Morgan Freeman). Frankie and Eddie go way back to the days when Frankie was also his boxing coach. Scrap was the kind of boxer who, like most boxers, knew that his time in the ring was coming to a close as he just didn't have the burning desire anymore to get up for each fight after having fought more than a hundred bouts.

Frankie knew this as well, and as his trainer he pleaded with him not to fight any more. Unfortunately, Scrap wouldn't take his advice, and in his 109th bout a punch out of nowhere cold cocked him and left him blind in one eye. With nothing else to do and nothing else to live for, he has remained with Frankie for years employed as the caretaker and manager of the gym.

The two get along well because they know each other so well, but there is always that undertow of angst on Scrap's part for not having listened to Frankie. For his part, Frankie is reminded every time that he looks at Scrap of that painful moment many years before when he should have made his arguments against Scrap's fighting that night just a little more forceful.

In spite of this one tragedy, however, there is a very deep well of mutual respect and understanding between these two men who have spent the better part of 40 years together. More than that is the fact that they actually like and admire each other as each serves as the yin to the other's yang. Neither are married, so Frankie and Scrap have settled into a long term relationship revolving around their life in the Hit Pit Gym and their shared love of boxing and the nurturing of new boxing stars.

Scrap is also aware of a very painful episode in Frankie's past when he had a family. All that is left is a daughter who is so deeply estranged from her father that she sends his every letter back to him unopened and stamped "Return to Sender." Every week he writes her another letter and every week the one from the prior week comes back in the mail, unopened. When he opens the door of his small ranch house at night the first thing he usually sees is the unopened letter lying on the floor. Frankie then sorrowfully files this letter away with all the others in a large file box that he keeps in a closet.

Frankie is a faithful, or faithless, Catholic who has attended mass "every day for the last 23 years," as Father Horvak (Brian F. O'Byrne), his long suffering priest, sorely reminds him. Frankie is so steeped in negativity that he never fails to give Father Horvak a needling on some point of faith at the close of each service, and the priest has long ago lost all patience with this daily testing.

What little joy Frankie finds in life other than each day at his gym is the time he spends reading poetry, especially Welsh poems written in the original language, a language that he has spent years trying to master.

The Hit Pit Gym itself is threadbare place with three or four rings in the center of a large, open room and other training equipment located in the areas along the walls. Scrap lives in the gym as its full time caretaker while Frankie sits in a second story office above with a wall of windows facing the floor so that he can keep track of the activity below when he is not reading a book of poetry.

Few men of championship caliber train there anymore, and the loss of his main boxer to a rival trainer is a real blow to Frankie and the financial stability of the gym. The few other men training in the Hit Pit Gym either offer little hope for income or are merely boxing wannabes.

The best example of this is "Danger" Barch (Jay Baruchel), a slightly retarded young man who shows up at the gym every day because he has nowhere else to go. This skinny kid would be blown over by a light wind, but Frankie and Scrap treat him kindly as just another big-hearted dreamer. Another boxer is a Black kid from the projects who sometimes exhibits the drive and discipline necessary to be a successful fighter but more often falls back on his undisciplined street tough roots.

One day a woman shows up at the gym and wants to meet Frankie. He is suspicious of her at first and wonders if he somehow owes her money. No, she says, she is a boxer and she wants him to train her. Frankie looks at her as though she is not only crazy, but that she also has insulted him with this request. She says that she is tough, but he hisses through his clenched teeth that "Girlie tough ain't enough!"

But she won't take no for an answer. Her drive is clearly there as she begins to spend all day, every day, practicing in the gym hitting the large dummy bags. She is even there late at night when Scrap turns off the lights and closes the place up. He takes pity on this spunky girl and teaches her the proper stance, pacing, and timing for working out on a swinging dummy. Later he loans her one of Frankie's punching bags in spite of being expressly forbidden to do so.

Both men are decent individuals who have long been used to the vagaries of life, so after the passage of some time Frankie also responds to this woman's strongly exhibited desire to be a fighter. He begins to give her a few boxing tips and then even allows her to continue to use his punching bag. Eventually he accepts the challenge to be her trainer even though he is clearly dubious of her chances and tells her so.

Maggie at 31 years of age is well past her prime to be starting out on a career at an age when most female boxers are retiring, so her chances are about as bleak as the old men coaching her, and all of them know it. The only thing that she has going for her is her enthusiasm and her heart. She wants this chance more than anything else in the world, and she is willing to do anything to escape her humdrum life as a waitress and an uneducated red neck hillbilly from Missouri where she had lived in a trailer as part of a fatherless family of lowlifes and ex-convicts.

After promising never to question any of his instructions, Maggie takes to Frankie's lessons like a duck to water. Each tip is rigorously applied and accepted, including Frankie's signature warning to "always protect yourself," an admonition against her ever dropping her guard and leaving her head and body vulnerable to a dangerous blow from her opponent.

Months of training result in a practice bout in the ring with Frankie wearing pancake gloves for Maggie's punching practice. One day he feels that she is ready for a practice bout against one of the males who work out in the gym. His laughter at her chances to beat him are quickly silenced when she dispatches him with a knockout punch in the first round.

Maggie is now ready for the public as an aspiring welterweight female boxing champion.