The directorial approach to the Million Dollar Baby is the least impressive. The Eastwood creates evocative atmosphere using light, the pace of narration and music (he wrote). Since the beginning of the film operates on the known pattern and Adaskalou mathitiA. But to use boxing terms, the film script with an unexpected reversal, manages to achieve a sudden punch to the viewer by changing climate ... read more
Extremely overrated. I don't what it was, but for me, this movie felt too fake, too engineered. I believe it was designed from the beginning just to give Eastwood an Oscar. Design up a script with tearful and shocking moments, add in a hot-button political topic (such as morality of keeping someone alive or letting them die in peace), and then add an all-star cast. Voila. The perfect film for... read more
Description: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 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... (more)(less)
"Rewatch on the 14th.
My girlfriend wanted to see this after I told her how good it was, so we watched it and sure enough she cried at a few points ;o. Quality movie!
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garfield2710 added this to a list 1 week, 1 day ago
"Clint Eastwood
A triumph of a boxing film that will make you go through all shades of emotion in existence
"Mo Cuishle - My darling, my blood!"
Million Dollar Baby is a boxing film but it's not about the life inside the ring: that means it's not energetic. It's not about the life outside the ring: that means it's not dramatic. It's about journey, the road that connects these two worlds, the fine strip in which one comes alive that's between shadow and light. This film is unique in the respec"
“Million Dollar Baby is a boxing film but it's not about the life inside the ring: that means it's not energetic. It's not about the life outside the ring: that means it's not dramatic. It's about journey, the road that connects these two worlds, the fine strip in which one comes alive that's between shadow and light. This film is unique in the respect that we get to see two relationships from two characters' point of view. One, a relationship between two generations and two; the tact passion for their mutual love for boxing. Frankie is a wounded man, a person broken by his past and present that continuously gets damaged by his uncertainty of the future. Maggie is almost Frankie's reflective, but with distinct differences: she's not much about the past or the future, but is focused straight” read more
Happy Vader added this to a list 1 week, 1 day ago
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Check out my review:
http://www.listal.com/viewentry/4424056
We get to see the rise and fall of this connection through Scrap Dupris's point of view, who is at first a background enigma but becomes the solid voice of the film as time progresses.
Now the boxing: rarely has any other film portrayed a sport as a character in itself. For the characters in the film, boxing is not a sport, but rather a living entity they must visit on a timely basis. We almost never get to see the the boxing. B"
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DIRECTED BY ~Clint Eastwood
─ Frankie : I swear to God, Father, it's committing a sin by doing it. By keeping her alive I'm killing her. Do you know what I mean, how do I get around that ?
Father Horvak : You don't. You step aside, Frankie. You leave her with God.
Frankie : She's not asking for God's help. She's asking for mine.
Father Horvak : Frankie, I've seen you at Mass almost every day for 23 years. The only person comes to church that much is the kind who can't forgive himself for "
"Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris:
"If there's magic in boxing, it's the magic of fighting battles beyond endurance, beyond cracked ribs, ruptured kidneys and detached retinas. It's the magic of risking everything for a dream that nobody sees but you." "
“Million Dollar Baby is a movie I find works on different levels. One first viewing I found the majority of the film great right up until the plot’s heartbreaking turn of events, it easily ranked as one of my new favourite films of all time. On second viewing however I found substantially even better as I was waiting in dread for the proceeding events.
Clint Eastwood’s direction on Million Dollar Baby is near perfect, he makes the art of filmmaking look easy. It amazes me the effectiveness of his films despite their simplistic (at least on the surface level) and humble nature.
For as dark and serious as the film is, it still manages to incorporate subtle humor with the dialogue exchanges between Eastwood and Freeman. Not many other films come to mind which can be as” read more