 "Best picture I've seen in quite some time." | 2008-09-08 |
| - Reviewed By wbirusan |
This is the best Clint Eastwood movie out there, I'd hate to say that Clint's acting actually moved me, but it did. Everything works in this one, the story, the actors, and the directing. Highly recommend.
Loved it! |
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| "As Good as the Hype" | 2008-07-23 |
| - Reviewed By emeritus6 |
| I finally saw this the other day for the first time and have to admit it lived up to its hype. Million Dollar Baby is a great film and Hillary Swank is a magnificent actress. Her performance in these frames was as strong as it was in Boys Don't Cry. As far as her relationship with Eastwood's Dunn goes their bond was totally believable as a union between a daughterless father and a fatherless daughter. I know that some of my fellow conservatives were sickened by the ending. Frankly, I wasn't. While I would not have done what the main character (Eastwood) did, his actions did not ruin the film for me. I typically don't judge theatrical releases by how much they reflect my own core beliefs though. Regardless of values, Million Dollar Baby deserves its reputation. It is a superior drama and--luckily--not a melodrama. |
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| "A masterpiece about the cruelty of social survival" | 2008-07-19 |
| - Reviewed By wuivre_eternelle |
This film is beautifully strong but immensely cruel. The strength of the film holds in one single fact: anyone can always win one battle provided they are trained properly and they are managed properly. That does not mean they will win the world title but they can always try and win one victory. How far will they go, no one knows, no one can tell. Luckily, otherwise there would be no meaning in trying. But the cruelty is all contained too in one fact: the end of such a fight for the top title is lost sooner or later if the contender does not learn how to cheat with life and the rules or to be aware the other one may cheat with life and the rules and this contender must be ready to resist these attempts. And that's just what the "boss" forgot to teach his fighter. And she was the victim of the viciousness of the champion who did something wrong for the third time causing severe damage and eventually death. If you just concentrate on these two elements this film is a masterpiece that deserves all the prizes it got. If you want to go slightly farther and sort out other elements like the heavy reference to God and religion, you will fall into something very trite, like the priest advising the "boss" not to meddle with the fallen fighter's desire to die because then he, the boss, would not be able to come to terms with himself. This answer is so narrow-minded, so egotistic in the name of God. I respect the divine command not because I respect or fear God, but because my disobeying this command may make me unhappy. On these sides issues and questions Clint Eastwood is definitely less clear. But the cruelty of this boxing against all people involved in the business is mastered in an admirable way. You win or you die and if you lose you have to die, at least die away into non-existing.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines
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| "Some people just don't get it." | 2008-06-08 |
| - Reviewed By admacewen |
Before I start, let me distinguish "story" from "plot" via the famous example proffered by E.M. Forster.
Story: "The King died, and then the Queen died."
Plot: "The King died, and then the Queen died of heartache."
What separates plot from story is the element of causality. Story refers to events and plot implies causal connections that "drive" the narrative. Although plot generally exists in even the most avant-garde filmmaking or purest examples of neo-Realism, despite their pretensions to the contrary, it is restricted to a level of simplicity. Films like MDB are about events that happen to people and how these people react to these events. They are character driven, sometimes event driven, but not plot driven. But whatever plot causality does exist is usual extremely important.
With this out of the way, let me quote one viewer's criticism of this wonderful film:
"Am I the only one who found the ending to be completely contrived, if not nonsensical? This has nothing to do with the fact that she died, and that it was sad. I have no problem with sad endings, when they MAKE SENSE. The thing I don't understand is WHY she had to die? In what way did it help the narrative, the plot, the story, or the lesson to be drawn from it? Here we have a story about a girl, her dream, and her struggle to live out that dream, despite her horrible family, and all the odds being against her, and as she is about to realize even the tiniest portion of that dream: BLAM, you're paralyzed... Why that? To me it seemed like it came TOTALLY out of left-field. [I must interject: he's got the answer right in front of his own nose and he can't see it!! - ADM] It was like Eastwood had this great movie going, had everything worked out perfectly and suddenly realized that it was getting too long and he needed to end it and that's the first thing he could come up with.
"It just didn't make sense in relation to the rest of the story. Now some people will say 'well that's life, sometimes *beep* happens.' And yeah, that is life, but MDB isn't life, it's a movie. Her injury seemed totally useless and left me wondering where in the hell Eastwood pulled that idea from.
"Mystic River = Eastwood movie with a SAD, SAD, SAD ending, but one that MADE SENSE."
First off, the so-called ending is actually the final third of the film. So stop calling it "the ending"! Second, note the emphasis on WHY and MAKING SENSE. This is one viewer who is stuck on plot and thinks that if an incident does not "advance" the plot in some overtly obvious manner then it is somehow faulty. As if the incidents and characters are there to serve the narrative rather than the other way around. The final portion of the film wasn't there to "help the narrative." The movie is ABOUT this part of the story, right from the very beginning. Yes, sometimes "*beep* happens," and that's life, and some movies are about life, as opposed to those that are about car crashes or explosions or Adam Sandler making his girlfriends laugh or Robin Williams impersonating a woman. If the controversial plot turn were arbitrary, then it would have sunk the film; life can be random, good art cannot be random. If it seeks to create a story that reflects life's randomness, there must be an underlying logic at work, and in Million Dollar Baby there certainly is. Here we have a strong, determined woman who dragged herself out of a dead-end life to achieve heights of athletic fame and accomplishments as a prizefighter. As is so often the case in life much of our fates are left to chance, and in a single, random, fateful moment in the ring (not her bathtub or street corner or local candy shop; i.e., there is a continuity to these events that MAKES SENSE), all that she had built for herself was taken away. Now she's left in a position where her pride and integrity are compromised, because she was once a great fighter and she is now a vegetable who feels she no longer has a reason to live -- and so she turns for help to the manager with whom she had her most intimate relationship. The man who helped her become what she was now has to ponder whether his responsibility to her is to help her live or help her die. (Unlike some of those who both love and hate this film, I don't think it makes a definite "pro-euthanasia" stance.) In other words, people who are in the position of begging for a mercy killing have lives that preceded their predicament, and Million Dollar Baby lets us experience that. Of course, grasping this requires some mental dexterity not possessed by those whose perspectives are purely linear. And those who think that movies are not life, "just movies" (whatever that means) will be completely lost. Sure, art can't do it the same way life can, but I think I covered that already earlier in this paragraph.
In other words, the story of Million Dollar Baby is more about two characters and a relationship than the construct we call "plot." Some movies are very plot-driven, and there is nothing innately inferior in that. Some of them are great films. They can, in their own way, reveal just as much about our external or interior lives. I even like outright action movies when I feel there's creativity and wit on display. I think Robert E. Howard (creator of Conan) is a great American writer. I don't think any work of "literary fiction" has captured so incisively the workings of our sexual sub-conscious as Dracula. I have a soft spot for John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China, for crying out loud. I mention these seemingly irrelevant and diffuse trivia lest I be accused of "highbrow" elitism.
Many works of art are great because they help us understand human nature better (although I don't agree with another viewer who feels that great films try "to improve the world at least a little bit"; some works of art may try to do this, but I feel this is incidental to what makes them great). Million Dollar Baby falls into this latter category of art that sheds light on what William Faulkner called "the human heart in conflict with itself."
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| "Three-Disc DVD Set Highlights An Eastwood Masterwork With a Powerful Turn by Swank" | 2008-03-31 |
| - Reviewed By ed_uyeshima |
It has been quite a few years since Clint Eastwood was reamed by critics for starring and sometimes directing ultra-violent vigilante action thrillers. What they neglected to acknowledge is that Eastwood has always had a strong sense of story, and age has really sharpened his filmmaking techniques to a deeply resonant emotional level without the need for gimmickry or special effects. Nowhere is his immense talent more evident than in this acclaimed 2004 film, a low-key, patiently paced, three-person drama that takes a surprising turn that lifts the movie into something quite extraordinary. The only significant thing miscalculated is the movie's title, which seems almost too comically ironic for such an enriching film.
Written by Paul Haggis (Crash), the basic story is simple, almost deceptively corny sounding a bit like the distaff version of Rocky. A spunky female fighter from the wrong side of the tracks, Maggie Fitzgerald, wants a grizzled old trainer, Frankie Dunn, to guide her to become a professional boxer. Of course, the trainer owns a third-rate gym with an array of male fighters encompassing all the stereotypes. He also has an aged assistant, Scrap, who is of course, willing to champion Maggie's potential more than Frankie, at least at the beginning. Eastwood, however, belies the predictability and takes his story to a far deeper and more nuanced level than one would presume from this set-up. It turns out that Maggie is pushing 32 and considered over-the-hill for getting into the game. Frankie is estranged from his daughter, reads Yeats, studies Gaelic and goes to Mass every day mostly to annoy the young priest. Scrap was a contender trained by Frankie but lost an eye and his boxing future when a match went awry.
How these three characters interact with each other supplies the film's main pleasure, not really the obligatory boxing scenes that will assuredly make one wince by their realism. In fact, one of the more painful scenes in the movie is not in the boxing ring but in a new house that Maggie buys for her ungrateful mother, when Maggie comes to the revelation that she has no one but Frankie to provide emotional support in her life. This is not to say the film lacks humor, as Eastwood infuses a clever sensibility that subtly draws you into these characters' lives without hesitation. The story follows Maggie's ascension in the boxing world, and what happens beyond that development is devastating. While it is enough to say there is tragedy involved, leave it to Eastwood, in his straightforward, confident directorial approach, to make the last part of the story surprisingly life-affirming and not at all exploitative. Only a filmmaking master could pull off such a feat in such an honest and emotionally affecting manner.
As an actor, Eastwood continues to impress primarily by his innate connection to Frankie. Probably not since his surprisingly open-hearted turn in The Bridges of Madison County has he made himself so vulnerable onscreen, granted this time under the veneer of his hard-earned, leather-faced machismo. His sense of authority is never in question here, and he shows it off with great relish, especially as his character realizes how much more complicated life becomes as he grows older. Morgan Freeman plays Scrap with his customary humanistic skill. In fact, he provides the narration as a voiceover letter to Frankie's daughter in a manner that will remind you of his similar turn in The Shawshank Redemption. That's not to say his performance is unsurprising, as he and Eastwood have an easy rapport that plays to both actors' strengths. But the standout is Hilary Swank portraying Maggie with an emotional directness and piercing vulnerability that cuts right to the heart. Not only is she physically impressive in the gym and in the ring, but she elevates what could have been a one-note character into someone far more complex, intelligent and affecting. The film is wonderfully profound with superlative acting.
The three-disc 2005 DVD set is solid but rather light on extras. Disc One contains a pristine print transfer of the film but no commentaries from Eastwood or the cast. There are three extras on Disc Two. The first is an 18-minute featurette, "Born to Fight", which features interviews with the three stars and three other cast members, in particular, boxer/actor Lucia Rijker (who plays Maggie's fatalistic opponent) who discusses the ways in which the film parallels her career in boxing. The second is "The Producers' Round 15", a 13-minute short on the film's production process featuring Haggis, as well as producers Albert Ruddy and Tom Rosenberg. The last extra is a roundtable discussion, "James Lipton Takes on Three" with the three stars being interviewed in typical sequestered fashion by the erudite host of "Inside the Actors' Studio". Disc Three is the soundtrack CD of Eastwood's atmospheric musical score orchestrated by Lennie Niehaus conducting the Hollywood Studio Symphony. |
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| "Great movie..." | 2008-02-08 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3QVEVHS1QE1ZN |
| This is an excellent movie. A real tear jerker at the end. I was anticipating something sad happening towards the end but I guess what is was wrong. I recommend this movie! |
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 "A Million Dollar Meditation" | 2008-02-08 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3EBHHCZO6V2A4 |
Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" is a parable and a meditation about greed, exploitation, and redemption. Eastwood himself stars as Frankie,a boxer who runs a gym. He "doesn't train girls" but the determined Maggie (Hilary Swank) wants to be a champion. Morgan Freeman stars as Eastwood's mentor&friend. Their relationship shows that true friendship transcends race. Freeman is an excellent actor; unfortunately, his near-constant voice-over gets intrusive&heavy-handed. Eastwood,show,don't tell!
Frankie is as determined as Maggie- he wants to win at any cost- and he pays the price. He exploits Maggie for the money, even pitting her against a famously brutal female boxer known for cheating. Frankie knowingly endangers Maggie&she naively accepts the challenge. However, Frank does have a conscience. He is repulsed whenever Maggie tells him to "put her down" if she is seriously injured.
"Million Dollar Baby" shows the seamy underside of female boxing. Boxing between men has an air of legitimacy, while female boxers live in a world of exploitation, treated as freaks. It also comes across as homoerotic. It's no wonder Maggie's redneck mother tells her to "get a man"-but maybe Maggie prefers being surrounded by bikini-clad babes&battling more muscular ones.
"Million Dollar Baby" is controversial because of it's "death with dignity" theme. The young priest warns Frank that if he puts Maggie out of her misery,it will lead to more tragedy. It's not a solution. The priest's prophecy comes true. Frank gives Maggie the lethal injection- and exiles himself from the human community. He doesn't live "happily ever after." On the other hand, Freeman's character is happily reunited with the boxer whose life he saved. Choosing life is redemptive. Some have painted "Million Dollar Baby" as propaganda. One wonders if they actually watched the movie, or if they're merely parroting what talk show hosts told them.
"Million Dollar Baby" has excellent acting,a beautiful score. Its weaknesses are Freeman's near-constant narration (though he has a wonderful baritone) and often stereotypical characters (such as Maggie's family) It's not one of the best Oscar-winning movies; it's still a champion. |
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 "Read the review" | 2008-02-04 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2BPMUG7SMAEJK |
With all the Murder Madness and Mayhem in the News I cannot help but believe we have become so De-sensitized ....that a Movie like this would be receiving Rave reviews and talk of Major Accolades !!! !!!
THE EMPEROR IS NAKED ...what is wrong with everyone, this movie is so outrageously unbelievable ...I respect Clint Eastwood and I admire Morgan freemans work as a actor but this Movie is utter Rubbish !!!..There are some places in our Souls that are reserved for the most damaging effects on our senses ..a place that we can retreat too in times of absolute unexplainable Madness ..but that is in REALITY I do not need to be taken there by a Movie ...after all ladies and gentlemen this is a ILLUSION a Story being read to us visually by the director with a cast of Characters ..if we ever reach the point in our minds eye that we cannot differenciate between what real and whats a illusion then we are really on a downword slide . |
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 "Very predictable- May contain spoilers" | 2008-01-30 |
| - Reviewed By vipergx |
| This film had its moments, but mostly, it was predictable and very unrealistic. What happened to her in the ring during her last fight is illegal and there is absolutetly no way in hell they would allow the other fighter to win that fight, as was mentioned by the white trash mother. I watch boxing and I was appalled at that scene. It pretty much ruined the movie for me from that point on. It could have been a good movie but instead it chose to go cliche. |
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| "Million Doller Baby" | 2008-01-20 |
| - Reviewed By revdona |
| This film is a moving experience. The acting from all characters is great; the story is one of triumph . . . and ensuing tragedy, such as happens in many lives. The ending does not spell out exactly what has taken place,thereby allowing the viewer to imagine. An A-one movie, with great acting and directing by Clint Eastwood. |
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