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Million Dollar Baby
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Despite a title that puts to mind a flick about bionic toddlers, Million Dollar Baby is about boxing. Clint Eastwood is in behind and in front of the lens, as the coach, with Hilary Swank as his protogé. Swank won an Oscar for her acting, Eastwood for his directing and Morgan Freeman as best supporting actor. Although parallels to Rocky are perhaps inevitable, Million Dollar Baby is distinctly more introspective and that is matched in Eastwood's music. The actor/director is evidently trying to outdo Robert Rodriguez in the most number of roles he can fill with each movie, which in this case, perhaps wasn't such a great move.
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In terms of acting, Million Dollar Baby is a three-character story centring on Frankie, Maggie and Scrap, and Eastwood, Swank and Freeman make the most of that. Eastwood perfectly conveys Frankie's bottled up guilt and regret, while Freeman, who ... narrates the film, is a quiet, commanding presence as Scrap in a performance that might finally land him an Oscar. Ms. Swank's performance, proves that her Best Actress win for Boys Don't Cry was no fluke. This trio of understated and effective performances does a fantastic job in getting the viewer to connect with and believe in the characters.
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In Million Dollar Baby, Clint Eastwood plays loner boxing trainer Frankie Dunn, an aging ringmaster with a knack for passing along fighting expertise. When his latest protégé parts ways so that he might have a shot at the title with another management team, Frankie struggles with the loss. That is until his services are aggressively sought by young boxer Maggie Fitzgerald, a woman with enough fiery spirit and tenacity to compromise one of Frankie’s most iron-clad rules of the ring - no training girls. Before long, a powerful bond develops between Frankie and Maggie, and, along with the help of Frankie’s long time assistant and one time boxer Eddie Scrap (Morgan Freeman), things begin to click and Maggie is on a roll.
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[N]ow, like the family in “Million Dollar Baby,” the relatives have descended. They want conservatorship of Preston, access to his finances and the right to move him from his top-notch health care facility back to Los Angeles. They do not seem to care about their half-brother’s wishes. Two weeks ago, in Los Angeles Superior Court, they failed to tell a judge that a durable medical power of attorney existed. By omitting certain facts, Preston’s sisters — represented by one of their sons — managed to achieve temporary custodianship.
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The plot of Million Dollar Baby is based on a real event in life of Ed Gein, when he was just beginning to become a crime fighter. In the beginning of the film, a burglar breaks into a museum and steals a solid gold baby, worth approxiamately $1 million, hence the title. The police are unable to catch the criminal, so Gein decides to take matters into his own hands. He gets into a fight with thief, but loses his knife and has to use his hands to fight. The thief, having fists of fury, beats the living crap out of Ed Gein. Gein then lies in a coma for about 3 years, until rapper Tupac Shakur comes along and finds him.
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Yes, Leah- Million Dollar Baby was loosely based on the real life story of Katie Dallam- you can read about her here [H]ttp://www.kddallam.com/ Katie, now an artist, is still alive, living with permanent head injuries as a result of the fight. She is cared for by her sister, Stephanie Dallam RN, MS - who works for the Leadership Council http://www.leadershipcouncil.org where she works to expose the myths, and tell the truth about child sexual abuse. Here's an excerpt about Katie, written by Stephanie. Born May 1, 1959, Katie has always been a fighter. She fought to survive a difficult childhood and troubled adolescence. She was an alcoholic by age 14.
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Million Dollar Baby