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A few hours ago, two days before this year's
Oscar event, I finally got around to watching Million Dollar
Baby, and, despite horrific conditions in the theater,
moronic audience members and a slightly out of focus screen,
Million Dollar Baby flat out floored me. I
have been for years a very big fan of Clint Eastwood, but
Mystic River angered me to no end because, mostly of its
asinine, cryptic ending. I missed Blood Work and Space
Cowboys, and enjoyed the slow, but well made True Crime.
Million Dollar Baby is, however, one of Clint's best works
ever. With a very decent script and a great cast,
Clint has directed what should probably win the Oscar.
What this movie represents, among other things, is one of
the best boxing movies ever made. Moving away from
stylistically filmed boxing, the camera takes you inside the
ring for several, very real matches. Clint Eastwood
has entered the pool of directors to have filmed terrific
boxing footage, this being some of the best I've seen, and I
love boxing movies. Between himself, Hilary
Swank and the wonderful Morgan Freeman, Eastwood has created
a film that literally takes the viewer through two years in
several people's lives, sweeps us up into it and shocks us
with where it takes us. The point of the film, despite
some unnecessary controversy, is not any particular point
but rather the entire story and the complexities of
existence and human and moral decisions. What duties
do we have to each other all of the time, not just at
certain junctures, is what the movie is about. And
while it does make a statement on the "controversial" aspect
of the movie, it's a cautious one that in no way ignores the
other, very valid side of the argument. If
you know nothing about this movie, try and keep that way.
Watch it, enjoy it and be swept up in it. Million
Dollar Baby is a great film.
That bag’s workin’ you!
by Joe De Matteo
HUGE
Morgan Freeman is one great
narrator; his voice telling the story, for me, is one of the
major reasons this film is so excellent. That voice, his
delivery…wonderful! Mr. Freeman’s acting performance is
perfect. His character come life. Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris
against Clint Eastwood’s Frankie Dunn, is a very different
character than Ned Logan was in The Unforgiven, I compare
these performances because in that film he also played
alongside Clint Eastwood.
Million Dollar Baby, the
screenplay, is the short stories from the book of short
stories, Rope Burns, stories from the corner, by F. X.
Toole. F. X. Toole is the penname of Jerry Boyd. Mr. Boyd
died in 2002, who wanted to keep his writing career separate
form his life in boxing.
Paul Haggis
wrote the screenplay for Million Dollar Baby. Mr. Haggis’
writing has entertained you on the big screen, but mostly on
the tube. He wrote for such popular shows like, One Day at
a Time, The Love Boat, Diff'rent Strokes, L.A. Law, The
Tracey Ullman Show, thirtysomething. As of this writing he
has 3 film projects in different stages of production.
There is a
passion in the words of this marvelous work, a passion that
allowed the great performances of the actors, and the talent
of the director to come together into the great film that it
is.
For those of
you who have held back from seeing this film because of the
controversial ending, I say, go see this movie. This is a
story about people and the life decisions they make. I
wouldn’t make any of the decisions any of the characters in
the film made, including buying a cheeseburger and not
eating it. I would have given different advice to everyone
in every instance, but this isn’t a story about Joe De
Matteo. This is a story about two older men who have spent
a lifetime in the prize fighting game, and a young,
uneducated girl who has guts, determination and a dream, but
little else. Little else except a beautiful spirit.
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