Million Dollar Baby (2004) 
“That was some of the best flying I’ve seen . . . “
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I feel like this entire review could have a spoiler tag, but am going to try and avoid giving anything away the end to all the Critical Blog readers who have not seen the film. For good or ill, the film subscribes to a kind of Homeric view of the world. Heros in the Illiad fight to attain immortality through the risk and glory of combat while these people see boxing the same way. There is also a bunch of emotional stuff, dark lighting and a wierd sub plot with a guy named Danger. While I was not gaga over the film I liked how most of the characters behaved and I liked most of the boxing scenes.
In addition to the boxing stuff, I enjoyed the tone of a lot of the movie. I think they do a nice job of not overdoing it, even though there are some ridiculous scenes. Then again, I could be a little biased in favor of Eastwood.
i think this is my favorite review of yours. first you lay the literary smack down, sum up the entire ethos of the movie and track its narrative history in 2 sentences. then after sounding sour the entire review you claim you’ve been easy on the film cause you like clint eastwood. i’d say for the future don’t worry about doing a review that’s just one big spoiler tag. better to say what you want for yourself than worrying about our enormous readership. i, for one, would like to know what you consider the ridiculous scenes.
i saw this in dillon, co with my dad (no mom cause she didn’t want to see boxing) i think last year while i was homeless. i don’t remember what we said about it on the drive back to fairplay but i think we disliked the predictability/stereotype of her family and the lack of precautions clint took when he spoilerspoilerspoiler.
Comment by Unfrozen Cavedan — April 26, 2006 @ 3:19 am
The family did not bother me. It seemed like a lot of the stuff was pretty black and white with Eastwood making the only grey decisions. I thought the Danger sub plot was a little out there. I am fine with there being a crazy guy that tries to box, but I don’t understand whyall the other guys wanted to beat him up or how a 50 year old man with one eye beat up a young punk. I thought that Swank would have won the fight via DQ and the other girl would have been kicked out of boxing.
I did like the movie though, hence the four stars. I think the story was interesting and the actors did a good job. Plus, I really liked the boxing scenes.
Comment by nate — April 26, 2006 @ 6:48 pm
Well, here I am on a Friday afternoon, catching up on my Critical Blog reading. I didn’t really have a lot to say, but wanted to leave evidence I had been here. I didn’t like this movie very much. I thought the performances were pretty good, especially Swank and Eastwood. I also thought the boxing scenes were well done but made me flinch a lot with their brutality. I didn’t like the way the evil fighter was such a caricature - she might as well have been named Ivana Drago. This was a “serious” and “realistic” movie only when it felt like it, as evidenced by the over the top fighter above, the ridiculous family (maybe more realistic…) and the silly stuff with Morgan Freeman and Danger. I thought the paralysis was contrived and I didn’t like the way the characters dealt with it afterwards. Perhaps I was less forgiving because of my own history of a family member dealing with similar physical issues; it felt like a pretty simplistic overly depressing perspecive. Though I thought Clint was pretty interesting in trying to come to terms with his feelings about it and his discussions with the priest.
Comment by poogas — April 28, 2006 @ 11:34 pm
I agree with Ben’s analysis about ‘real when it wanted’. I guess the parts I liked outwieghed the bad parts for me, probably because I didn’t have to compare it to any real life experiences. Though Carrie and I were both surprised at how she gave up. It remeinds me of the study on happiness that says a horrible injury has about the same impact on a person as winning the lottery. For the most part people keep their character.
Comment by carrie — April 29, 2006 @ 2:28 am