Million Dollar Baby (2004)
“She came here knowing one thing…she was trash.” – Eddie
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Directed by: Clint Eastwood
Written by: Paul Haggis, F.X. Toole
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank, Morgan Freeman, Jay Baruchel
This. Movie. Is. A. Knockout.
Get it?
I’m sure most people reading this have seen Million Dollar Baby before – it’s an absolute classic and won a billion Oscars in 2004 – and there isn’t much for me to add that hasn’t been written before, but…I’ve gone through a bit of a ‘boxing movie’ phase recently and decided that The Greatest Boxing Movie Of All Time deserved a review.
So yes, maybe a bit of a hot take to start - as there are a squillion boxing movies, and maybe this doesn’t have as pure or entertaining boxing choreography as some others - but for me this is head and shoulders above the rest. For reference, my top 10 list would probably be:
Million Dollar Baby
Rocky IV
Raging Bull
Rocky
Creed
The Fighter
Creed 2
Jungleland
Southpaw
Rocky II
For those who haven’t seen it: Million Dollar Baby follows hardened old boxing trainer Frankie Dunn (Eastwood), who reluctantly agrees to train a newcomer, Maggie Fitzgerald (Swank), to become a professional on the female boxing circuit. With the help of his assistant Eddie Dupris (Freeman), Dunn does his best to avoid repeating old mistakes, and forms a strong bond with Maggie.
So what makes this movie so great? A couple of key ingredients. First, the cast is absolutely bonkers – let’s check out their resumes for this film quickly:
Clint Eastwood: You get Clint being his grumpy, cantankerous old-man self (basically the same character he plays in Unforgiven, Gran Torino, and basically any interview he’s ever had to do – he’s the quintessential grumpy old grandad). Wins the Oscar for Best Director.
Hilary Swank: Is absolutely outstanding – both her dramatic performance and the effort she put into becoming a believable fighter – apparently she added about 9kg of muscle for the role. Wins the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
Morgan Freeman: What an absolute lad. Not only is he great as Dupris (who is an incredibly well written character), he narrates the movie! And there’s nothing better than Morgan Freeman narrating your movie. Probably one of his most famous roles along with Shawshank (duh), Seven and Driving Miss Daisy. Wins the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
So three great actors, three great performances, three Oscars. Pretty impressive. And the rest of the supporting cast is a great combination of actors playing outside of their type, and now-famous actors early in their careers. Jay Baruchel (known more for his comedy schtick as part of the Seth Rogan frat pack) is incredible as ‘Danger’ Barch, a harmless and delusional simpleton who is set on becoming the ‘welterweight champion of the world’. Honestly this is probably the biggest surprise of the movie - Baruchel being a great dramatic actor. There are also fun cameos from young Anthony Mackie and Michael Pena (both now A-listers), and impressive performances from familiar faces Mike Colter, Margo Martindale and Riki Lindholme.
As with any great boxing movie, there are some entertaining training montages, you get a great underdog story with the down-on-her-luck Maggie giving the viewer a hero to get behind, and the boxing scenes are good enough to give you a little adrenaline rush every twenty minutes or so. However, the boxing in this film is sort of secondary to the story – it’s a lot deeper than just “I can’t wait for [ripped famous actor] to knock out the bad guy”. At it’s heart, Million Dollar Baby is a story of persistence, loyalty, and family. This is all driven by the relationship between Frankie and Maggie. What starts as Frankie not wanting to train a woman evolves into a heartwarming father-daughter relationship, with Frankie wanting to protect Maggie from a cruel world and her family. Eddie and Frankie’s relationship also lights up the screen, as Freeman and Eastwood sling one-liners back and forth effortlessly.
Another thing that differentiates this from other boxing movies? It’s incredibly sad, with one of the most gut wrenching endings of any movie I can remember. Not a ‘feel-good’ film by any stretch of the imagination, with Maggie’s squalid upbringing and cruel family an unavoidable dark spot that hangs over the whole movie. Maggie essentially tries to find redemption and a way out through her boxing and relationship with Frankie, but…you’ll have to watch to see what happens. The only other boxing movie that gets close to this level of emotional turbulence and character development is probably Rocky (and maybeee The Fighter), but with all due respect to Sylvester Stallone, he’s no Morgan Freeman.
An incredible movie, with amazing actors, a great script, and heart-warming chemistry between Eastwood and Swank. Not a popcorn flick, so only watch this if you’re up for something a bit deeper, but a must-watch movie.
Rating: 8.5/10