"I DON'T TRAIN GIRLS", trainer Frankie Dunn growls. But something's different about the spirited boxing hopeful who shows up daily at Dunn's gym. All she wants is a fighting chance. Clint Eastwood plays Dunn and directs, produces and composes music for this acclaimed, multi-award-winning tale of heart, hope and family. Hilary Swank plays resilient Maggie, determined not to abandon her one dream. And Morgan Freeman is Scrap, gym caretaker and counterpoint to Dunn's crustiness. Grab your dreams and come out swinging.
DVD Features: Documentaries Featurette Interviews
Clint Eastwood's 25th film as a director, Million Dollar Baby stands proudly with Unforgiven and Mystic River as the masterwork of a great American filmmaker. In an age of bloated spectacle and computer-generated effects extravaganzas, Eastwood turns an elegant screenplay by Paul Haggis (adapted from the book Rope Burns: Stories From the Corner by F.X. Toole, a pseudonym for veteran boxing manager Jerry Boyd) into a simple, humanitarian example of classical filmmaking, as deeply felt in its heart-wrenching emotions as it is streamlined in its character-driven storytelling. In the course of developing powerful bonds between "white-trash" Missouri waitress and aspiring boxer Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank), her grizzled, reluctant trainer Frankie Dunn (Eastwood), and Frankie's best friend and training-gym partner Eddie "Scrap-Iron" Dupris (Morgan Freeman), 74-year-old Eastwood mines gold from each and every character, resulting in stellar work from his well-chosen cast. Containing deep reserves of love, loss, and the universal desire for something better in hard-scrabble lives, Million Dollar Baby emerged, quietly and gracefully, as one of the most acclaimed films of 2004, released just in time to earn an abundance of year-end accolades, all of them well-deserved. --Jeff Shannon
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Could Not Look Away:
***** Spoiler Alert ***** Hats off to Mr. Eastwood for getting me to watch a film about women's boxing. I believe that boxing (regardless of gender) is largely barbaric and distasteful. Add to that, women's boxing is made up in part by ex-prostitutes and ex-strippers, which means that we are heading into degrading territory. Even Frankie deemed female boxing a freak show, rendering him highly reluctant to get involved. The true heart of this movie is a father-figure daughter-figure love... more info
The best movie I've ever seen...:
And that is saying a lot...because I consider myself to be a lover of movies...This ranks right alongside if not above Braveheart, The Godfather, and E.T. I can't say it is the movie I liked the most...but it is SO well acted...so well directed...and the story, although seemingly contrived worked for me. Swank has proved that she is in a class all by herself, with her second Oscar and quite possibly the best female performance I can EVER remember...it is the subtleties of her portrayal that makes this... more info
The Characters are Great!:
Do not let anyone tell you that this is not a film about boxing as some critics have said - it is, or at least 85% of it is. But, whether you are boxing fan or not (and I am definitely not!) this is a great film, that is brilliantly acted and directed with the three main characters being stand-outs. Firstly, Clint Eastwood's acting and direction are peerless, while Morgan Freeman brilliantly plays his part in an understated way, but what a performance by Hilary Swank - the Academy had to give her the Oscar.... more info
smash mouth boredom:
A very dark, but curiously shallow movie. (Why do we often think that movies depicting broken lives and terrible pain are deep?) Story line: White trash girl who wants to box talks old trainer into working with her. First good things happen, then bad things happen. I kept watching, thinking that soon I would begin to like one of the characters and be drawn into the story. Didn't happen. Beyond learning a little bit about boxing and the boxing world, this movie was a waste of time. And I usually like Clint... more info
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