Million Dollar Depression
by matt @ 1:28 pm. Blogged under Movies
Before I was interrupted by a woman using her mobile on the train, I finished watching Million Dollar Baby on the laptop, probably the most depressing film I’ve watched since Angela’s Ashes but well acted and strangely enjoyable. Clint Eastwood plays Frankie Dunn – a retired boxer turned coach and gym owner, with no direct family (you never find out why his daughter doesn’t speak to him anymore). He’s a daily visitor to the local Catholic Church where he asks daft questions of the angry priest there, but again you never get to the detail of his issues. He’s also learning to speak ‘Gaelic’ but yet again, that seems a bit odd and isn’t explained in full, presumably he’s interested in his ancestral roots.
Having had one or two bad experiences of taking boxers into big fights before they’re ready, Frankie is reluctant to take boxers up a level for their ‘one shot at the title’, and as a result loses boxers to other managers just as they reach professional status. Eventually he ends up training a persistent young woman ‘Maggie Fitzgerald’ (Hilary Swank) despite initially saying on their first meeting “Girlie – tough ain’t tough enoughâ€? (delivered as if he was still in a Fist Full of Dollars mode). He names her ‘Mo Cuishle’, Gaelic for ‘my darling my blood’, which gives her lots of Irish support (although she’s only an Irish decendant too). After that predictable point the film builds up to a rather tragic event and the last thirty minutes or so are very depressing and, I suppose, a bit thought provoking.
Morgan Friedman plays the part of a former boxer ‘Eddie Scrap’ who was trained by Dunn and now lives in his gym as the poor one-eyed caretaker – he’s allowed to get away with being Dunn’s outspoken conscience. With Friedman as narrator throughout the film it’s somewhat like watching The Shawshank Redemption, but nowhere near as great and with an unhappy ending. The fundamental principle of the entire plot is similar to my favourite quotation of ‘a ship is safest in harbour but that’s not what ships are for’ by author William Shedd.
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August 3rd, 2006 at 3:14 pm
Actually I thought I was going to hate the movie. I like Eastwood, he’s the Mans Guy, shoot them and ask questions afterwards. Dirty Harry was brill for its time, the Spaghetti Westerns were great….but to see him as a wrinkly old boxing coach? Well I wouldnt have gone alone…I got dragged in there by a female to watch it. But, I have to say I thought it was a really good film and he played the part really well. It was all about relationships really and I’m told by the female that dragged me in there - quite emotional. Which I have to say it was sad ( obviously not a Macho Man myself, but hey, I didnt cry when she banged her bonce ok? )