Yesterday I finally saw the great Oscar winner of 2005, and I can say that "Million Dollar Baby" really deserves the awards of best film, director, lead actress and supporting actor, and even the prize of lead actor in the hands of Clint Eastwood would not be a mistake of the Academy: Ben Kinsley and Jamie Foxx were great, but in a whole I would have given the award to Clint Eastwood.
The story is very simple and real: Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank), a poor thirty-one years old waiter from the very lower classes and with a dysfunctional loser family, decides to make a difference through the box. She convinces the experienced hardened box trainer Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood) to couch her and be her manager, with the support of his old partner Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris (Morgan Freeman), who sees her potential as a boxer. Frankie has a problem of relationship with his daughter, and practically adopts Maggie along her career, until she is seriously wounded in a fight for the championship and he has to take a decision.
This unpleasant and sad theme, in the hands of another director, might have become corny. But the awesome Clint Eastwood deals with such touching story without final redemption, very realistic, making a future unforgettable classic in the genre. The characters and the dramatic situation are perfectly developed, and in the end, the viewer becomes sad, but never depressed. My vote is ten.
Title (Brazil): "Menina de Ouro" ("Golden Girl")
The story is very simple and real: Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank), a poor thirty-one years old waiter from the very lower classes and with a dysfunctional loser family, decides to make a difference through the box. She convinces the experienced hardened box trainer Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood) to couch her and be her manager, with the support of his old partner Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris (Morgan Freeman), who sees her potential as a boxer. Frankie has a problem of relationship with his daughter, and practically adopts Maggie along her career, until she is seriously wounded in a fight for the championship and he has to take a decision.
This unpleasant and sad theme, in the hands of another director, might have become corny. But the awesome Clint Eastwood deals with such touching story without final redemption, very realistic, making a future unforgettable classic in the genre. The characters and the dramatic situation are perfectly developed, and in the end, the viewer becomes sad, but never depressed. My vote is ten.
Title (Brazil): "Menina de Ouro" ("Golden Girl")