GREAT SELECTION: Million Dollar Baby (2004)

Clint Eastwood, at age 86, is still chugging along like a cool dude who means business, filming at a quick pace and delivering most of the time. He is one of the most beloved Hollywood icons whether you do not like his political beliefs. What I like about his style of filmmaking and also appearance is that he is calm, calculated and light-hearted because many people are intimidated by his snarling looks and "menacing demeanor". But, people pick that up because many have seen his films from the westerns to the crime dramas to the more emotionally hitting dramas.

But, at the time, I was surprised that Eastwood was tackling on a sports film because he is going into this genre cold regarding how to set up the brutal violence within the boxing scenes. He and Martin Scorsese, the director of Raging Bull, went in cold when they made their first sports film but no matter, because of their talented filmmaking background, they both made terrific and heartbreaking boxing films and character-driven pieces. Watching it for the first time, I was in for the ride because of the Oscar buzz and a word-of-mouth spreading everywhere but also it was a classically fine film about a woman coming from a poor background but has an eye for the prize of persistence of becoming a great fighter.

Margaret "Maggie" Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) is a waitress from a Missouri town in the Ozarks, who shows up during a boxing match glancing at both Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood) and his boxer, Willie (Mike Colter), fighting against an opponent and winning the match. She is tempted to become a great boxer. After her initial conversation with Frankie not going well because he does not train girls and being tough is not enough, Maggie is persistent and goes to the Hit Fit, the gym that Frankie runs off a bet with Eddie "Scrap-Iron" Dupris (Morgan Freeman), a former boxer, working in the gym  and living in the gym who also serves as the narrator of the film.

After Willie gets an offer from a successful manager, he respectfully declines Frankie's schedule to fight and he moves on. Maggie is offered some help from Scrap with a few position stances but after seeing her persistence and impressed with her commitment, Frankie reluctantly agrees to train Maggie with certain conditions. He trains her the basic moves and gets her a manager for boxing matches. However, when Maggie is mistreated by her manager and is left alone, Frankie steps in to coach her. She becomes unstoppable and bribes almost every manager to fight novice fighters until she moves up to the junior welterweight class.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

This movie is divided into two stories and both of them are quite fascinating. You have the main plot in which it is about a girl from a poor and somewhat unfair community trying to better for life for good and for dedication as a boxer. It is the source of inspiration in a boxing film. But, also, there is a subplot in which it ties the movie beautifully in which we explore the isolation in Frankie's life. We ask ourselves as to why he is so distant from everybody except his employees and a poster, who he verbally harasses after his sermons.

But, they both tie into the theme of fatherhood or paternal instincts because Frankie is having a hard time communicating with his daughter. The priest asks Frankie at one point in the movie whether he writes a letter to his daughter. Frankie responds with a melancholy tone: "Every week." The basic relationship of the film is between Frankie and Maggie as they establish not just a coach-athlete relationship but a father-daughter relationship especially when talking about her father and the state of her family's conditions which her sister cheats on welfare and her mother is overweight. Frankie looks up to her as a daughter because it is the closest that he is got to a person in quite some time and he becomes more conscientious.

The turning point of the film is when after the million-dollar fight, the movie turns into more of a drama than a sports film. After when a dirty opponent hits her illegally in the boxing ring, Maggie falls onto the inappropriately placed corner stool and falls on top on one of its legs, breaking her neck and leaving her a quadriplegic. Frankie is furious with the initial doctoral staff which showcases one of the five stages of grief: seeking multiple doctors' opinions in denial and then blaming Scrap in anger. However, he bargains through God in prayer to hopefully know that everything will be fine with Maggie.

But, in a very emotional scene, Maggie asks for Frankie to kill her in mercy, accepting everything in her path that she deserves in life. She got the best things in life. Again, Frankie looks up to Maggie as a daughter and according to the pastor, Frankie will never find himself again going forward with Maggie's wishes. Obviously, if you have seen the movie, you know what happens with both characters. But, in a stunning and small twist, Morgan Freeman's narration in the film is actually a letter to Frankie's daughter. I thought that was a brilliant masterstroke of writing by Paul Haggis.

This movie never misses a step and it is definitely one of Clint Eastwood's top-tier films recognizes the gravitas of his performance and his direction. It felt like a novel transcended into a masterful film with the narration, story and its characters. Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman both deserved their Oscars with their fantastic performances serving both important characters to Frankie's personal story and to the main plot itself. The movie, according to Eastwood, is about a character taking on the American Dream, her American Dream of becoming what she is best for herself: a great boxer because she has been going through tough times. That framework sets up as a source of inspiration like Rocky was back in the 1970s, which was also another great sports movie. It is a great movie to behold and even though it is a tough movie to conceive, it is emotionally gut-punching, no pun intended.