Million Dollar Baby (2004)

Director: Clint Eastwood

Writers: Paul Haggis (screenplay), F.X. Toole (stories)

Stars: Hilary Swank, Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman

My Review:

                Million Dollar Baby is Clint Eastwood’s masterpiece. Clint Eastwood has been directing films from the 70’s but he gained recognition as a director in the film industry only in 1992 when he directed “Unforgiven”. Since then his directorial brilliance have amazed us in many films like A perfect world, The Bridges of Madison County and Mystic River. He has been consistent in the quality of his films rather than the quantity. In the year 2004 he acted and directed the film Million Dollar Baby starring Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman. Frankie Dunn(Eastwood) is a trainer and Manager of Boxers and he had trained some of the best in the past. He always teaches his trainees to protect themselves above all. His only friend is Scrap, an ex-boxer who lost an eye in a Boxing match and ended up as a caretaker at ate gym. Maggie (Swank) is a 31 year old waiter at a hotel decides to pursue her dream of a Boxing career and she joins the gym of Dunn to get trained. Frankie skeptical about woman boxer turns her down. Does she get trained by Dunn?  And What happens then?  is the film. I do not wish to reveal the surprises now.

                Although this is a film about a Boxer’s life, this one is different from the traditional Boxing films like Rocky, Raging Bull,and The Cinderella Man etc. The drama in the movie is truly awesome. Clint Eastwood just delivered a perfect feast to his fans. Hilary swank was at her best in this film. The BGM in this film was apt. The touching script was a major reason for the success of the film.

                This film was highly appreciated by the critics as it won 7 Oscar Nominations and won 4 of them. Clint Eastwood bagged 2 Oscars from his 3 nominations. Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman were the others who won the Oscars. This film is rated 8.2/10 in imdb.com and earned a score of 86/100 and 91/100 in metacritic.com and rottentomatoes.com respectively.

My Rating: 8.4/10

Recommendations: Watch it to feel how hard it is to watch something/someone you love suffers...