day 3 - Million Dollar Baby

Clint Eastwood is an enigma, a man who rose to fame on the back of Westerns and Cop films where he handed out not only justice, but also an insight into the hearts, minds and souls of men. Over the years he has become one of the great American directors, deftly telling stories of struggle that are identifiably unique to this country. His truths are those of loyalty, perseverance, heartache, and the pain of being unable to stop the inevitable. At the same time he is a subtle artist, a virtuoso performer using light, color and sound to tell the audience a story not found in the words that are spoken. Because of these hard earned gifts he is amongst a handful of directors who could have shaped a film that resonates with pain in every frame and yet is a story of hope.

Million Dollar Baby is one of those rare films that, while containing moving dialogue, is told primarily by the faces of the actors and what the director allows us to see. The trio of performers that make up the core of the film, Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman and Hilary Swank, have all proven they are capable of playing at the top of their field. Given the material and the direction, each here is flawless in their performance. On the surface this is the story of Swank's, Maggie Fitzgerald, a woman from a trailer park in rural Missouri who, despite being too old, moves to LA and enlists the help of Eastwood's Frankie Dunn. Dunn is a grizzled old trainer and owner of a rundown gym on the outskirts of town, but has trained fighters that have gone on to be world champions. He refuses at first but eventually relents and trains her.

But this is not a film about boxing. It is about loyalty, perseverance, heartache, and the pain of being unable to stop the inevitable. Frankie is a wounded soul that perseveres the daily grind without true direction. He trains fighters to their peak but, when the time comes, cannot bring himself to sign them to title fights. He has lost fighters and the opportunity to manage champions because he is unable to take the risk of putting his fighters in the way of permanent harm. His burden, the guilt he carries with him everyday, stems from a fighter for whom Frankie was a cut man, his gym manager and friend, Freeman's Eddie Dupris, . In his last fight Eddie lost the use of his right eye and Frankie has never forgiven himself. Frankie also has a daughter who each week returns his letters, unopened, marked Return to Sender. The only thing Frankie has outside of his boxing world is his daily trips to mass, a compulsion even his priest notes is made “only by people who cannot forgive themselves.”

And this is where the film truly begins, where a man who has lost his passion finds a woman with a singular goal. Maggie is from one of those places in America that is at best forgotten and at worst a sad joke. She has, in the words of Eddie, come from a place where she knew only one thing, “that she was trash.” Knowing only one thing in her heart, she follows her dream with a single-mindedness that seems to foreshadow the inevitable. She has no outside life and lives solely to train. There is no love interest with another boxer or conflicts with her day job to interfere with her goal or the focus of the film. The point is reinforced when Frankie gives her a tape to scout an upcoming opponent and he discovers she doesn't even own a VCR let alone a TV to connect it to.

Like Frankie, Maggie is alone, even though they arrive there on different paths. And as she rises in the ranks Frankie struggles with his guilty conscience, but with a parental bond burgeoning between them, he pushes aside his fears to live in the present. The wounded soul and the forgotten woman create an alliance. But this is not a Hollywood fairy tale with cheering crowds and Rocky-esque endings, because this is not a movie about boxing. The ending point of this film is far removed from its beginning. It's journey towards redemption shared by few films in its frankness. Like every great film should, the audience leaves darkness of the closing credits feeling introspective about the meaning of Million Dollar Baby.

In a film riding the currents of loyalty, perseverance and heartache there is an undercurrent Eastwood imparts quietly, underneath the others that are more overt and more commonly discussed. Frankie’s training, his knowledge is what releases Maggie's inherent skill. However, it is her passion that fuels her success and also his redemption. Knowledge needs passion to achieve greatness. In fact a life without passion, whatever it entails, may not be truly living at all.