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Million Dollar Baby
2004
Released a little over a year after the grand success of his Oscar-winning feature 'Mystic River', Clint Eastwood returns to the director's chair for 'Million Dollar Baby'. Eastwood also stars in the role of Frankie Dunn, a down-on-his-luck former boxing manager who spends the twilight years of his life running a small, .. Read more
| Starring | Hilary Swank, Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Jay Baruchel |
|---|---|
| Director | Clint Eastwood |
| Genres | Drama, Sport |
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Critics' reviews (4)
View all -
For those who thought Unforgiven was the masterpiece of Clint Eastwood's autumn years, this sharp, moving and brutally bleak drama proves that he can bring the same grizzled genius to the sports arena. Adapted from Rope Burns, a book of short stories by FX Toole, it stars Eastwood as Frankie Dunn, a washed-up coach whose fighters abandon him as soon as they hit the big time. Dumped by his latest slugger, Dunn reluctantly turns his attentions to Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank), a 31-year-old waitress who turns up at his gym begging for lessons. Dunn tutors Maggie to success, but then this otherwise standard underdog story takes a shocking turn in its final third that gives the movie an unexpected depth and immense power. Morgan Freeman is impressive as Dunn's crumpled sidekick, and Golden Globe winner Swank is terrific, too, but this is Clint's film, both as its tortured hero and as a great American director.
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A knockout, affecting drama of an ageing boxing trainer, almost waiting for death, his commonsensical sidekick, and a young woman hoping for a life; Eastwood wrings true emotion from a narrative that goes in unexpected directions and the performances are
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At his gym in downtown LA, Frankie Dunne (Clint Eastwood) has been training and managing boxers for years, and not... read more on Time Out
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Most helpful members' reviews (3)
View all -
68 out of 83 people found this review helpful
It Will Have A Round With 'Rocky' Anyday!
Before I start you must rent this immediately! This film is brilliant. If you haven’t seen it yet I strongly suggest you do! Its another film directed by Mr Eastwood and its possibly he best yet. Mr Eastwood likes to keep things simple in this movie and it shows in the end result. The movie is about a 30-year-old woman trying to do anything to pursue her dream of becoming a boxer and wining the world championship. Although the movie does follow the 'American dream' it has a bitter and harsh twist, which propels the movie into utter sadness. It is a stunning story with characters you will likely to remember, it has a great sense of humour and kind-heartedness. Eastwood has raised the bar in movie making yet again and this is an enjoyable and engrossing movie to watch. It has thrills, spills, emotional lows + highs and comedy. The film does dive deep into complete disaster and tragedy, which is a nice and different twist to what we are used to in boxing films. Clint, Hilary and Morgan all deserve awards for their roles and characters in the movie. Put it this way you cant miss this film, and if you do you’ll regret it, its pleasant to watch and totally absorbing!
5 out of 5 stars -
24 out of 31 people found this review helpful
Brilliant but bleak
This is a very moving film but do not watch it if you are feeling in the least bit down. There is something about this film that really gets under your skin I could not get it out of my mind for days after watching it.
Hilary Swank is amazing but how much could they put her poor character through I watched the last thirty minutes with gritted teeth.
It was a great film marvellously played by all involved. -
19 out of 23 people found this review helpful
A tragic but beautiful movie
A truly wonderful movie with terrific performances from everyone involved.
Hilary Swank (as Maggie) delivers a blistering performance; full of grit, raw emotion, power and just the right amount of pathos.
But, it’s Clint Eastwood as Frankie Dunn who steals the movie for me. He delivers a tour de force of such sensitivity and compassion that it’s very very easy to forget that he was the man with no name and Harry Callahan.
Behind Frankie’s bluster, lies a beautiful heart. He shows it in private when he sees yet another returned letter from his estranged daughter, the yearning almost palpable in his face. He resists Maggie’s desire to be a boxer for a long time, but when he falls, boy he falls big time! She becomes the daughter he is missing and the care and feeling he devotes to her in the final scenes of the film are so deeply touching, that one can’t help wishing Frankie was their father.
Morgan Freeman is his usual brilliant self and all the smaller roles are perfectly executed.
A deserved winner of four Oscars, but I would have given Clint the best actor award too. -
Most recent members' reviews (2)
View all -
7 out of 8 people found this review helpful
A Heavy Middle-Weight
Okay, so before we get into anything, let’s have a look at the film on paper first. We’ve got Clint Eastwood as a run-down, life-weary, hardened old boxing trainer who just can’t seem to take his fighters to the top. We have academy award winner, Hilary Swank playing a down on her luck, trailer-park graduate who only wants to make something of herself and feels that boxing is the way to do that. We have good old Morgan Freeman, one of Clint’s best buddies and sidekick favourites in previous films, turning in a performance as a half-blind old fighter who literally eats, works and sleeps in the gym. And on top of all of that, we have trusty Mr. Eastwood behind the camera calling the shots on a movie that carries a lot of grit, a lot of determination and a lot of punch. You somehow start to get the feeling that you may have seen this all before.
Sure, now we’re dealing with the up-to-date topic of female boxing and it’s something that needs to be handled with tact and care - which of course old Clint likes to take a lot of time over - and we have all of the harrowing emotions that we are dragged through in the closing stages of the movie; but did it really have to be portrayed in such Hollywood fashion.
First we have the under-dog story of Swank’s character, Maggie; who couldn’t be any more Rocky if she tried. Then we have to deal with Freeman’s heart-breaking backstory; Eastwood’s troubles and inability to emote holding him and people around him back; the thugs in the gym picking on the weaker members and learning their lesson. It’s every cliché in Hollywood boxing movies and it seems to be placed so that Clint can go around sweeping into town and clearing things up, just like he used to do in the good old days. The whole training and fighting section of the movie is so fantastical in its reality that it makes a mockery of the events that unfold later on; the two parts of the movie just don’t seem to fit.
Now I usually like Clint Eastwood’s films, as an actor, but especially as a director, but here I get the overwhelming notion that this is really just Clint running Clint by numbers; both in front of and behind the camera. When he isn’t making films about the Wild West, Eastwood’s films are relevantly poignant and evoke a great sensibility and emotion from their characters and themes. Unfortunately here he’s gone and made another Western, casting himself as the unlikely hero yet again. You can’t seem to engage with the story as real and the film suffers terribly for it, especially when in the latter stages it really asks you to believe and emote.
I couldn’t believe that this film won any Oscars, never mind four, but then I had a look at the nominations and saw that it wasn’t really up against much. It deserved to win over what else was on offer, and of course Freeman and Swank are very good, but this film is only averagely good at best. Good, but by no means great.
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68 out of 83 people found this review helpful
It Will Have A Round With 'Rocky' Anyday!
Before I start you must rent this immediately! This film is brilliant. If you haven’t seen it yet I strongly suggest you do! Its another film directed by Mr Eastwood and its possibly he best yet. Mr Eastwood likes to keep things simple in this movie and it shows in the end result. The movie is about a 30-year-old woman trying to do anything to pursue her dream of becoming a boxer and wining the world championship. Although the movie does follow the 'American dream' it has a bitter and harsh twist, which propels the movie into utter sadness. It is a stunning story with characters you will likely to remember, it has a great sense of humour and kind-heartedness. Eastwood has raised the bar in movie making yet again and this is an enjoyable and engrossing movie to watch. It has thrills, spills, emotional lows + highs and comedy. The film does dive deep into complete disaster and tragedy, which is a nice and different twist to what we are used to in boxing films. Clint, Hilary and Morgan all deserve awards for their roles and characters in the movie. Put it this way you cant miss this film, and if you do you’ll regret it, its pleasant to watch and totally absorbing!
5 out of 5 stars -
24 out of 31 people found this review helpful
Brilliant but bleak
This is a very moving film but do not watch it if you are feeling in the least bit down. There is something about this film that really gets under your skin I could not get it out of my mind for days after watching it.
Hilary Swank is amazing but how much could they put her poor character through I watched the last thirty minutes with gritted teeth.
It was a great film marvellously played by all involved. -
19 out of 23 people found this review helpful
A tragic but beautiful movie
A truly wonderful movie with terrific performances from everyone involved.
Hilary Swank (as Maggie) delivers a blistering performance; full of grit, raw emotion, power and just the right amount of pathos.
But, it’s Clint Eastwood as Frankie Dunn who steals the movie for me. He delivers a tour de force of such sensitivity and compassion that it’s very very easy to forget that he was the man with no name and Harry Callahan.
Behind Frankie’s bluster, lies a beautiful heart. He shows it in private when he sees yet another returned letter from his estranged daughter, the yearning almost palpable in his face. He resists Maggie’s desire to be a boxer for a long time, but when he falls, boy he falls big time! She becomes the daughter he is missing and the care and feeling he devotes to her in the final scenes of the film are so deeply touching, that one can’t help wishing Frankie was their father.
Morgan Freeman is his usual brilliant self and all the smaller roles are perfectly executed.
A deserved winner of four Oscars, but I would have given Clint the best actor award too. -
16 out of 20 people found this review helpful
Pretty Good but Not Great
Perhaps this film suffers because of the oscar hype and subsequent expectation. Eastwood is a fine filmmaker and this is a decent film. I do however feel that the emotional ending glosses over the shortcomings of the main body of the film. The first two thirds of the film in which the themes are laid out through the boxing plot is borderline naff. My partner felt it was just plain cheesy. The last third of the film tugs the heart strings and gives the film a more epic and tragic feel than it perhaps deserves. I think you either buy into this film or you don't.
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16 out of 23 people found this review helpful
Cannot understand the Oscars for this film
This cannot be a bad film with Oscar’s for best film and best actor for Morgan Freeman.
But I simply cannot see it as a good one. Only Frankie (Eastwood) and the Morgan Freeman character have any depth, this is not a case of bad acting, it is just that all the other characters are simply stereotypes.
Apart from her ambition Maggie (Hilary Swank) is just a cardboard cut out, and her generosity to her appalling family beggar’s belief, apart from the fight sequences Swank can only do the best she can with the part she is given.
For me the whole problem is with the screenplay, Morgan Freeman does a great job of the voice over, but why is he doing it, a prime rule of all fiction is “show don’t tell” or “actions not words”, as a result everything runs at one speed, slow.
Sorry, I am probably in a minority of one but this is not a good film. -
12 out of 14 people found this review helpful
Powerful and moving
I chose to watch this for its repuation not as a fan of boxing or Clint Eastwood.
I wasn't disappointed, this is agripping story brilliantly acted by Swank Freeman and Eastwood.
The principal twist lacks credibility in my view but the outome and consequences are moving and thought provoking. Highly recommended. -
12 out of 15 people found this review helpful
Million
I really enjoyed this. Please do not hesitate to watch this if you are not a boxing fan. Boxing is not really the true story.
Its a great film that will have most in tears. -
11 out of 17 people found this review helpful
Moving
A moving story about a woman becoming a boxer, but it is more about father-daughter relationships than boxing.
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9 out of 9 people found this review helpful
SUPERB
I really enjoyed this film from the start to the end. It's easy to see how this film won 4 Oscars. The action is brilliant, along with the plot and the acting. This film is captivating and really pulls you into the story. If you've not seen this film, RENT IT NOW!!!! Best film I've rented so far!!!
Critics' reviews (4)
-
For those who thought Unforgiven was the masterpiece of Clint Eastwood's autumn years, this sharp, moving and brutally bleak drama proves that he can bring the same grizzled genius to the sports arena. Adapted from Rope Burns, a book of short stories by FX Toole, it stars Eastwood as Frankie Dunn, a washed-up coach whose fighters abandon him as soon as they hit the big time. Dumped by his latest slugger, Dunn reluctantly turns his attentions to Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank), a 31-year-old waitress who turns up at his gym begging for lessons. Dunn tutors Maggie to success, but then this otherwise standard underdog story takes a shocking turn in its final third that gives the movie an unexpected depth and immense power. Morgan Freeman is impressive as Dunn's crumpled sidekick, and Golden Globe winner Swank is terrific, too, but this is Clint's film, both as its tortured hero and as a great American director.
-
A knockout, affecting drama of an ageing boxing trainer, almost waiting for death, his commonsensical sidekick, and a young woman hoping for a life; Eastwood wrings true emotion from a narrative that goes in unexpected directions and the performances are
-
At his gym in downtown LA, Frankie Dunne (Clint Eastwood) has been training and managing boxers for years, and not... read more on Time Out
-
This one floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee
Buy from the LOVEFiLM shop
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- Million Dollar Baby - BLU-RAY Version
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Released a little over a year after the grand success of his Oscar-winning feature 'Mystic River', Clint Eastwood returns to the director's chair for 'Million Dollar Baby'. Eastwood also stars in the ... -
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- Million Dollar Baby
- DVD: £5.00
Free Delivery - RRP £14.79 (you save: 66%)
Released a little over a year after the grand success of his Oscar-winning feature 'Mystic River', Clint Eastwood returns to the director's chair for 'Million Dollar Baby'. Eastwood also stars in the ... -
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