2004 Million Dollar Baby

2004 Million Dollar Baby

Maggie Fitzgerald: You're gonna leave me again?
Frankie Dunn: Never. 

Million Dollar Baby competes with The English Patient for most depressing Oscar winner.


It tells the story of Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank), the nicest girl in the world, who is finally beginning to get her dream and some happiness when her life is suddenly and irrevocably destroyed in a freak accident.  The end.

Maggie comes from the worst family imaginable -"white trash" is too good for them, they are just terrible, terrible excuses for human beings.  She buys them a house with her boxing winnings and all they can do is complain and gripe.

She has been waitressing since she was 13 in order to try to do the one thing she loves: box.  When she is 31, she joins the gym of Frankie Dunne (Clint Eastwood, who also directed the movie), and works out there daily while she tries to convince him to become her trainer.

Frankie is a sad character -he has a good heart, but is a lonely soul.  He is out of touch with his daughter, and writes to her every week, only to have her return the letters.  He is betrayed by a boxer he has trained right before he goes for the title shot.  His only friend appears to be his partner, Eddie Dupris (Morgan Freeman).



Finally, Frank caves and agrees to train Maggie, letting her into his life and into his heart, which takes a lot of courage for him.

Maggie becomes an excellent boxer, but when she gets her chance at the title, her competitor, a dirty fighter, hits her in the back of the head in between rounds, causing her to fall and hit her neck on a stool, which leaves her a paraplegic.

I don't know whether this is worse for Maggie or for Frank, who does everything he can to help her, and is devastated by what has happened.

As if this poor, kind girl hasn't been through enough, she ends up needing one of her legs amputated, and suffers the flagrant indifference of her family.  When she is injured, they spend their time visiting amusement parks, only to finally visit to try to take all her money for themselves.  These are garbage disposal people.

Finally, after a great deal of pleading, and after she tries to kill herself by chewing on her tongue (eek), Frank agrees to help her die.



It starts out as a pretty good (not great) boxing movie, and then turns into misery on depressing street.
Blech.  Not at all sure why this movie won.

Hilary Swank and Clint Eastwood were terrific, as usual.

I did enjoy the part where Morgan Freeman (whose character was a former boxer), hops into the ring to face a punk who has been beating up a mentally handicapped young man who fancies himself a boxer.  The guy is mocking him as he approaches him with one glove on, and Morgan Freeman proceeds to lay him out.  Beautiful.

Downfall.

I would have preferred Downfall win.  That was an interesting movie.  If you have to watch a movie about people dropping like flies, it may as well be a movie about Nazis dropping like flies.