GREAT DIRECTORS MEDLY : CLINT EASTWOOD - "MILLION DOLLAR BABY"

Ok, I guess we all remember this one. Back in 2004 it wiped the floor with at the Oscars® and a lot of other reputed awards shows as well. We all heard of it. Some of us were vaguely surprised at the fact that Clint Eastwood (acting, producing and directing this one!) was still churning out winners. Some of us watched it. Others (me included) reckoned they had seen a few boxing films too many and decided to give it a miss. I was rather disappointed today, on watching it, to realize that my first judgment could also have worked. Million Dollar Baby is an excellent example of its genre, but not original. By a LONG shot.
The interesting one about this film is that it kinda mixes too films into one. It starts off as your typical common or garden sporting movie. Clint Eastwood is Frankie Dunn (heck, who am I kidding, he’s Clint Eastwood like in every single one of his films but that’s what he is called here anyway) and he is one of the best trainers for boxing in the US of A. He is a tough old fella, and has old-school principals. He runs a boxing gym along with his old friend Scrap (Morgan Freeman) and his life has been going on as it always has been until Maggie (Hilary Swank) enters his life. She is 31 (i.e. waaay too old to begin boxing) yet a complete beginner and yet she will NOT rest until Frank agrees to train her. Frank does not train girls. End of story. However Maggie persists. She persists and Scrap kinda gets on side and persists a bit with her and in the end (surprise surprise) Frank takes her on. She is as good as she claims to be. She works hard, develops a killer left hook and shoots up to the stars, match after match, round after round, win after win… Until the title match. The result of which will turn both her and Frank’s lives upside down – and I don’t mean in a good way…
Here the film breaks off and turns into a class A tear-jerker. A good tear-jerker but none the less, that’s what it is. By this time we have found out that Frank is estranged with his own daughter and that Maggie’s father is dead leaving her alone with her “hillbilly” family so Maggie and Frank are in fact a kind of surrogate father – daughter now. Frank is going to have to face is demons and both are going to have to make very, VERY tough choices.
I am in two minds about this one. There is nothing wrong with it. There are some brilliant “raaah” moments in it (you know the kind I mean don’t look all blank like that!). True, the fact that Maggie tends to knock her opponents out cold in the first round is a little well… Unbelievable AND annoying but Hilary Swank is so endearing as Maggie you tend to forgive her for that. Eastwood then takes every single tear-jerking storyline and sideline and stuffs it into the movie. I concede the fact that the film is an adaptation and I have not read the story it was adapted from but still… I mean, I reckon it could have been toned down a bit. The interesting thing is though, is that it works somehow. What I mean to say is if a mediocre filmmaker had tried to cram all the stuff Eastwood does into the film it would just be comical. Here it works after a fashion. You watch it to the end – and get excited about it – even though you can pretty much guess every single plot twist to the end. Not my kinda thing that, I like to be surprised (hence my love of Tarantino – I can never EVER guess where the guy is going to pop up from next if you see what I mean). It’s a good film, deserves the pat on the back that it got, and you should watch it. Do it in your spare time or something though, there is no rush.