Film Reviews & Movie Analysis

I had vague recollections of the hype surrounding the movie when it originally came out, and so I pretty much banked on its reputation when I decided to watch it this month. The only thing I knew/assumed about this movie was that it surrounded a female boxer climbing to fame with the help of her grumpy but lovable trainer.

I’m glad I walked into this one blind.

Maggie Fitzgerlad (Hilary Swank) wants to be trained by the best, and for her that’s Boxing Club owner and occasional boxing manager Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood).

Refusing to train a girl, Frankie ignores Maggie for months as she studiously comes to the gym to train between working at a diner as a waitress. Eventually Frankie is coaxed by old friend Scrap (Morgan Freeman) to take on Maggie, and he soon finds the woman is a natural.

The journey this story was unexpected in both the best and the worst way possible and it will be sticking with me for a long time to come. There were a lot of little things I liked about this movie that came together and gave an overall engaging viewing experience.

The first element that comes to mind is a specific piece of music in the score. We first hear it as the movie opens, as a short piece played with an acoustic guitar. This same tune comes and goes throughout the movie and is also played by piano. Both instruments gave a different feel to each scene it backed – hope and sorrow.

For such rough and ready settings, the cinematic lighting on some shots were breathtaking. Specifically the ones covered in darkness, leaving a letterbox of lighting on a characters face so they had nowhere to hide from the audience who are focused on the vulnerability of their features.

The casual but strong relationship between Frankie (Clint Eastwood) and Scrap (Morgan Freeman) was a great addition to the movie. The two characters balanced one another out and added a mild and authentic level of humor to the movie.

Although boxing was the principal backdrop of the movie, it didn’t try to cram as much jargon down our throats as possible, (the opposite of Molly’s Game and poker). Here, we picked up what we needed to know along the way and I didn’t feel lost for a second.

I know that Clint Eastwood movies are a thing, but as far as I can remember I’ve only seen Dirty Harry, J.Edgar and Mystic River. However after watching Million Dollar Baby finding more works directed, produced and starring Clint Eastwood just made my day.

Glad to have finally watched Million Dollar Baby and I’d recommend bumping it up a couple of places to anyone who has this on their to watch list.