Million Dollar Baby
Feb. 7th, 2005 11:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ceebeegeeSo, I saw Million Dollar Baby this weekend with Mom.
Oh, man.
Oh, man.
It's about a female boxer, Hilary Swank, from Missouri who seeks out Clint Eastwood to train her. Morgan Freeman takes care of the gym that Clint owns. For a good half or more, it's a conventional sort of sports story (nothing wrong with that, I love a good sports flick) that actually makes boxing interesting. There's talk about the technique of boxing, the "sweet science," the footwork, how to protect yourself. Also, a friend of mine (sort of--I lived with his ex-girlfriend when I first moved to Manhattan in 2000), Anthony Mackie (this is the guy who won me over forever by saying of Tatiana "we should get a cat--Tracy's roommate has the cutest cat") has a nice little featured role as one of the other boxers in the gym. Anthony is doing so well, it's awesome to see.
Then in a title fight against a rogue fighter, Maggie gets blindsided--the other fighter clocks her from behind and knocks her out, breaking her neck. She is paralyzed from the neck down, and eventually has a leg removed. Frank (Clint) is devastated by this--Clint's acting is HEARTBREAKING in these scenes, as he is trying so hard to be a rock for her and not show her his despair. There's also a great scene where her shitty family shows up to pressure her into signing over her assets to them, and Frank tries to shame them into acting decently. The movie is really about family--Frank is a father to Maggie, and her real family is awful to her, just ungrateful white trash assholes. Also, Frank has no relationship with his daughter--she sends all his letters back unread.
But the ending is just so sad. When he's sitting at her bed in the darkness, before he helps her die, he says "Ma cushla means...my darling. My blood." Ma cushla is the nickname he gave her, and had a robe embroidered with it. It was chanted all over Europe as her nom de guerre, but he wouldn't tell her what it meant until she won the title. The look in her eyes when he tells her...Oh, man. I was bawling by this point. I could not stop crying. I'm tearing up now remembering. There was such tenderness, and gentleness, and such devastating grief. Again, Clint does an amazing acting job in this movie, as does Hilary who is a rock star. It actually took me awhile to warm up to Clint's performance, but it all pays off in the second half. Watching their relationship grow is beautiful.
I was tearing up when the family visits. I just kept thinking (of them and the rogue boxer) "why do people have to be so awful?" But the last scene between them killed me. I thought I'd recovered after Mom and I left, I was joking around with her about how I looked like a mess, and then driving home I started crying again. Oh my God. What an amazingly moving film.
Oh, man.
Oh, man.
It's about a female boxer, Hilary Swank, from Missouri who seeks out Clint Eastwood to train her. Morgan Freeman takes care of the gym that Clint owns. For a good half or more, it's a conventional sort of sports story (nothing wrong with that, I love a good sports flick) that actually makes boxing interesting. There's talk about the technique of boxing, the "sweet science," the footwork, how to protect yourself. Also, a friend of mine (sort of--I lived with his ex-girlfriend when I first moved to Manhattan in 2000), Anthony Mackie (this is the guy who won me over forever by saying of Tatiana "we should get a cat--Tracy's roommate has the cutest cat") has a nice little featured role as one of the other boxers in the gym. Anthony is doing so well, it's awesome to see.
Then in a title fight against a rogue fighter, Maggie gets blindsided--the other fighter clocks her from behind and knocks her out, breaking her neck. She is paralyzed from the neck down, and eventually has a leg removed. Frank (Clint) is devastated by this--Clint's acting is HEARTBREAKING in these scenes, as he is trying so hard to be a rock for her and not show her his despair. There's also a great scene where her shitty family shows up to pressure her into signing over her assets to them, and Frank tries to shame them into acting decently. The movie is really about family--Frank is a father to Maggie, and her real family is awful to her, just ungrateful white trash assholes. Also, Frank has no relationship with his daughter--she sends all his letters back unread.
But the ending is just so sad. When he's sitting at her bed in the darkness, before he helps her die, he says "Ma cushla means...my darling. My blood." Ma cushla is the nickname he gave her, and had a robe embroidered with it. It was chanted all over Europe as her nom de guerre, but he wouldn't tell her what it meant until she won the title. The look in her eyes when he tells her...Oh, man. I was bawling by this point. I could not stop crying. I'm tearing up now remembering. There was such tenderness, and gentleness, and such devastating grief. Again, Clint does an amazing acting job in this movie, as does Hilary who is a rock star. It actually took me awhile to warm up to Clint's performance, but it all pays off in the second half. Watching their relationship grow is beautiful.
I was tearing up when the family visits. I just kept thinking (of them and the rogue boxer) "why do people have to be so awful?" But the last scene between them killed me. I thought I'd recovered after Mom and I left, I was joking around with her about how I looked like a mess, and then driving home I started crying again. Oh my God. What an amazingly moving film.
