Saving Million Dollar Baby

It's been over a week since I saw Million Dollar Baby. I'd like to say that I waited a while to write about it to see if my opinion would change, but I'm not that level-headed. I've been busy with work and school and planning to have our roof replaced. Regardless, my opinion hasn't changed so here I go...

I think of Million Dollar Baby a lot like I think of Saving Private Ryan and that's not necessarily a good thing. Although I think both are good movies, they are also flawed in ways that it makes their otherwise greatness frustrating.

First off, let's examine what's good, and even great, about MDB:
1. The acting. Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman are at the top of their game. Eastwood is just Eastwood in all of his movies, but it really works here. So, you have three main characters and they are all portrayed by first-rate actors. It also doesn’t hurt that Eastwood and Freeman seem tailor-made for their roles.

2. The narration. Narration is over-used in movies, but it really works in MDB. That's probably because it's done by Morgan Freeman. You can't go wrong with putting Morgan Freeman in your movie and you really can't go wrong by having Morgan Freeman narrate your movie. When trying to explain the success of March of the Penguins this summer, film journalists can go on and on about the void of family entertainment, but the reason that movie is doing so well here in America is because Morgan Freeman is narrating. The people watching may not realize it, but it’s all Morgan.

3. The boxing. The boxing looked real. Nothing ruins a movie that involves sports faster than fake sports scenes. Sports comedies can get by with shoddy sports scenes more than the dramas, but overall bad sports scenes take you out of the movie immediately and you start questioning the merits of the entire movie because of it.

4. The director. Clint Eastwood can direct. I wouldn't put him in that class of directors like Scorsese, where I'd see anything they directed just because they were involved, but he's not too terribly far behind. Clint does a great movie just often enough to make you aware that he's really good at it. And now that I think of it, his best movies are similar. Play Misty for Me, Unforgiven, Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby; if you’ve seen these four movies go ahead and play connect the thematic dots.

5. The story. It could have been really cliché and I’m sure some people feel it is anyway, but it avoids the pitfalls and sets the right tone from the very beginning. It could have gone wrong very easily though. You have a long shot, dirt poor, female boxer being reluctantly trained by an old boxing lifer who “don’t train girls”. The story by itself is just a training montage set to a pop song away from being lamest movie of the year.

Okay, here’s what was wrong:
1. The supporting actors. They were way too over the top. The skinny kid playing Danger just seemed like he was in the wrong movie. (He would have fit nicely in Dodgeball, which I also just recently watched.) In fact, the chemistry between the regulars at the boxing gym didn’t really work at all. Also, Maggie’s family was a fart joke away from Blue Collar TV. I bought their behavior but the execution was way off. It was really distracting.

2. The narration. It just wasn’t consistent enough. The narration disappeared for long patches throughout the movie. It was great when it was there and I realize the desire not to use it as a crutch, but its absence was just too noticeable at times.

3. The final match. We hardly know anything about Maggie’s final opponent, but we are lead to believe she is more than just a sporting opponent. She’s the enemy and she’s evil. I think there are religious elements in the movie that is the explanation for this dark characterization of Maggie’s destroyer, but I’m not as interested in the religious aspect of this movie as I am in the good movie aspect of the movie. To me it would have been a hell of a lot more effective for this evil that is brought on Maggie to have just happened. Isn’t that life? And more relative to this movie, isn’t that boxing and sports in general? Her downfall is already brought on by an unfair punch. Her fall to the ring is worsened by her stool already being set in her corner. Why did this have to happen at the hands of someone evil?

4. The dénouement. To me the climax of the movie is the end of that last match and the knowledge that it has left Maggie paralyzed. So why, in the name of all that is sweet and sour, is the rest of the movie 35 minutes long? It shouldn’t have been to bring back Maggie’s trailer trash family for one more scene, although that happens. It shouldn’t have been to turn this otherwise good movie into a melodrama, but that’s what happens. About the only good thing I can think of in making the ‘Maggie is paralyzed’ portion of the movie so long is that it brought back Morgan Freeman’s narration. I guess the people who made the movie decided to have Maggie’s death be the climax of the movie. While Maggie’s decision and Frankie’s eventual involvement with her death is certainly a moral struggle, it’s not the movie’s strongest element. I’m sure a movie could be made where that struggle is compelling. I’m sure it could be handled delicately and masterfully enough to be the focus of an entire movie, just not this movie. I cared about the characters and I cared about those last 35 minutes of the movie, it just wasn’t as strong as the rest of the movie. I’m not one of those people who is upset because the movie is depressing. I’m just upset because I think it could have been so much better.


I rate the movies I see on a scale of 1-5. If the only problem with the movie was the supporting actors, the inconsistent narration, and the final match, I’d give the movie a 4. The lengthy dénouement is probably worth another full point too. That would make it a 3, but because the strong parts are so strong I give it a 3.5.