Million Dollar Baby: A Moving and Memorable Morality Tale
by Bob Palin
Even though it’s been a week since I saw Million Dollar Baby, the characters and events that are portrayed therein stay with me. The emotional impact that this movie has had on me is powerful and lasting. To Clint Eastwood and everyone involved in the production of this wonderful and masterful achievement, I say thank you.
Million Dollar Baby is a morality tale. Its main characters, Maggie (Hilary Swank) and Frankie (Clint Eastwood) both pursue their individual values, some proper and some misguided. Maggie is a waitress and would-be boxer and Frankie is a boxing trainer/manager who owns a gym. When their lives cross, Frankie states unequivocally, “I don’t train girls.” As their lives become more entwined, both main characters must make difficult moral decisions requiring independence (thinking for oneself and coming to one’s own conclusions) and integrity (acting on one’s own conclusions).
To say their decisions are difficult is an understatement. They involve addressing their very fundamental premises and values. Frankie and Maggie both display an incredible sense of life as they interact and pursue their goals practicing the virtues of productivity, honesty, pride, justice, benevolence and rationality.
The scenes between Frankie and his parish priest are worth the price of admission on their own.
There is no scene in this movie, no piece of dialogue, that is not important to the story. Clint Eastwood and Hilary Swank are perfect and totally convincing in their roles. The supporting characters are all significant and essential to the story.
This movie is about adversity, courage, parents and children, life, death, values, questioning values, friendship and love. Most of all love.
Go see this movie. Judge for yourself. I’ve gushed enough.
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