Clint Eastwood's 2004 film "Million Dollar Baby" is one of his best, a grim and haunting portrait of the relationship between young female boxer Maggie (Hilary Swank) and her elderly trainer Frankie (Eastwood). The movie's bleak subject matter and dark, confessional photography somehow resulted in a major box office success and an Academy Award win for Best Picture.
While it shared DNA with some classic sports films, it ultimately ends at a place far sadder and more complicated. The toll the sport takes on bodies is never far from the movie's mind, giving it a uniquely hard edge. The movie's success rested largely on Swank's performance.
In playing Maggie, Swank brought a lived-in vulnerability to the role. Eastwood had a role that was easy enough for him, one in a vein he'd played many times before. His portrayal of Frankie was cantankerous, monosyllabic, immediately skeptical of Maggie's talents. For...
While it shared DNA with some classic sports films, it ultimately ends at a place far sadder and more complicated. The toll the sport takes on bodies is never far from the movie's mind, giving it a uniquely hard edge. The movie's success rested largely on Swank's performance.
In playing Maggie, Swank brought a lived-in vulnerability to the role. Eastwood had a role that was easy enough for him, one in a vein he'd played many times before. His portrayal of Frankie was cantankerous, monosyllabic, immediately skeptical of Maggie's talents. For...
- 9/10/2022
- by Anthony Crislip
- Slash Film
'Million Dollar Baby' movie with Hilary Swank and Clint Eastwood. 'Million Dollar Baby' movie: Clint Eastwood contrived, overlong drama made (barely) watchable by first-rate central performance Fresh off the enthusiastically received – and insincere – Mystic River, Clint Eastwood went on to tackle the ups and downs of the boxing world in the 2004 melo Million Dollar Baby. Despite the cheery title, this is not the usual Rocky-esque rags-to-riches story of the determined underdog who inevitably becomes a super-topdog once she (in this case it's a “she”) puts on her gloves, jumps into the boxing ring, and starts using other women as punching bags. That's because about two-thirds into the film, Million Dollar Baby takes a radical turn toward tragedy that is as unexpected as everything else on screen is painfully predictable. In fact, once the dust is settled, even that last third quickly derails into the same sentimental mush Eastwood and...
- 10/7/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
In our last few articles, we went over the First Time Fest and the closing night awards, so here are a few interviews we had with the filmmakers of their prestigious films.
Gesa Jäger, editor of Love Steaks
How does this feel?
I’ve been dreaming of coming to New York my entire life and I’ve always wanted to have a movie show in the Us so this is a big dream for me.
Tell me about your film:
It’s a love story between two people who are very different and kind of crash into each other and try to be happy together and it doesn’t really work out. We shot it in a hotel. There are only two actors in it and everyone else is playing themselves. It’s like the hotel staff during their working time and we improvised most of the movie and I...
Gesa Jäger, editor of Love Steaks
How does this feel?
I’ve been dreaming of coming to New York my entire life and I’ve always wanted to have a movie show in the Us so this is a big dream for me.
Tell me about your film:
It’s a love story between two people who are very different and kind of crash into each other and try to be happy together and it doesn’t really work out. We shot it in a hotel. There are only two actors in it and everyone else is playing themselves. It’s like the hotel staff during their working time and we improvised most of the movie and I...
- 5/1/2014
- by Catherina Gioino
- Nerdly
The second installment of the First Time Fest, the Second Time Around, took place in New York City from April 3rd to April 7th where ten first time filmmakers were able to showcase their films and possibly be in competition to receive distribution of their films by Cinema Libre Studios. Since its debut in March of last year, the First Time Fest has grown to honor and embrace first time filmmakers for their efforts in trying to make their first work and trying to get recognized in an ever difficult field of art.
Johanna Bennett and Mandy Ward thought up of the idea for this type of film festival seven years ago when they realized that no other event had honored the first time filmmaker. Taking this idea in mind, they agreed to bring these newcomers to the field and give them advice as well as bring them closer to...
Johanna Bennett and Mandy Ward thought up of the idea for this type of film festival seven years ago when they realized that no other event had honored the first time filmmaker. Taking this idea in mind, they agreed to bring these newcomers to the field and give them advice as well as bring them closer to...
- 4/21/2014
- by Catherina Gioino
- Nerdly
Blu-ray Release Date: Feb. 4, 2014
Price: Blu-ray $19.98
Studio: Warner Home Video
Time has flown by since Million Dollar Baby won the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture in 2004, but now we have this 10th Anniversary Blu-ray.
Directed and starring Clint Eastwood (Trouble With the Curve), the drama movie follows Eastwood’s Frankie Dunn, a hardened boxing trainer who’s given up on the professional circuit until Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank, Conviction) walks into his gym. Maggie talks him into training her, and they form a bond that goes beyond the ring.
The PG-13 movie also stars Morgan Freeman (The Dark Knight Rises), Jay Baruchel (This Is the End), Anthony Mackie (Pain & Gain) and Michael Pena (End of Watch).
Million Dollar Baby also won an Oscar for Hilary Swank as Best Actress, Morgan Freeman as Best Supporting Actor and Eastwood as Best Director. It was also nominated Eastwood as Best Actor, the...
Price: Blu-ray $19.98
Studio: Warner Home Video
Time has flown by since Million Dollar Baby won the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture in 2004, but now we have this 10th Anniversary Blu-ray.
Directed and starring Clint Eastwood (Trouble With the Curve), the drama movie follows Eastwood’s Frankie Dunn, a hardened boxing trainer who’s given up on the professional circuit until Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank, Conviction) walks into his gym. Maggie talks him into training her, and they form a bond that goes beyond the ring.
The PG-13 movie also stars Morgan Freeman (The Dark Knight Rises), Jay Baruchel (This Is the End), Anthony Mackie (Pain & Gain) and Michael Pena (End of Watch).
Million Dollar Baby also won an Oscar for Hilary Swank as Best Actress, Morgan Freeman as Best Supporting Actor and Eastwood as Best Director. It was also nominated Eastwood as Best Actor, the...
- 10/24/2013
- by Sam
- Disc Dish
Tags: Afternoon DelightRachel MaddowEmma StoneChristina AguileraHillary ClintonNaya RiveraIMDbLinda Wallem
Good afternoon and happy Friday everyone! We made it!!!
Happy birthday to Jennifer Carpenter, Emily Browning, Ellen Burstyn, Lucia Rijker, Sara Bareilles and Ae's Trish Bendix!
Bendix posing with her dream girl Rachel Maddow
Rumor has it Barbra Streisand wants to cast Lady Gaga in her remake of Gypsy. Um, yes, please!
Anne Hathaway looks like a Samantha Ronson's doppelganger in Glamour magazine.
Nurse Jackie creator Linda Wallem is heading to NBC's Up All Night. Starting in the spring Wallem will be Up All Night's new showrunner and the show will now be shot in a multi-camera format.
For those of you who were frustrated with last night's Glee episode enjoy this half-naked photo of Naya Rivera as, err, Santa Claus?
Hahahaha this is hysterical. Christmas Fun!!! twitter.com/NayaRivera/sta…
— Naya Rivera (@NayaRivera) December 7, 2012
Attention Brandi Carlile fans!
Good afternoon and happy Friday everyone! We made it!!!
Happy birthday to Jennifer Carpenter, Emily Browning, Ellen Burstyn, Lucia Rijker, Sara Bareilles and Ae's Trish Bendix!
Bendix posing with her dream girl Rachel Maddow
Rumor has it Barbra Streisand wants to cast Lady Gaga in her remake of Gypsy. Um, yes, please!
Anne Hathaway looks like a Samantha Ronson's doppelganger in Glamour magazine.
Nurse Jackie creator Linda Wallem is heading to NBC's Up All Night. Starting in the spring Wallem will be Up All Night's new showrunner and the show will now be shot in a multi-camera format.
For those of you who were frustrated with last night's Glee episode enjoy this half-naked photo of Naya Rivera as, err, Santa Claus?
Hahahaha this is hysterical. Christmas Fun!!! twitter.com/NayaRivera/sta…
— Naya Rivera (@NayaRivera) December 7, 2012
Attention Brandi Carlile fans!
- 12/7/2012
- by Bridget McManus
- AfterEllen.com
Million Dollar Baby (2004) Direction: Clint Eastwood Cast: Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank, Morgan Freeman, Jay Baruchel, Mike Colter, Lucia Rijker Screenplay: Paul Haggis; mostly from "Million $$$ Baby," one of the six short stories found in F. X. Toole's (aka Jerry Boyd) Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner Oscar Movies Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank, Million Dollar Baby Fresh off the multiple Academy Award nominee Mystic River, Clint Eastwood went on to tackle the ups and downs of the boxing world in Million Dollar Baby. Despite the cheery title, this is not the usual Rocky-esque rags-to-riches story of the determined underdog who inevitably becomes a super-topdog once she (in this case it's a "she") puts on her gloves, jumps into the boxing ring, and starts using other women as punching bags. About two-thirds into the film, Million Dollar Baby takes a radical turn toward tragedy that is as unexpected as the rest of...
- 2/13/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
She was the world's most famous female boxer. He was her trainer and loving husband. But when she tried to leave him for a woman, he hatched a plot to K.O. her for good.
There is a story Jim Martin liked to tell about the first time he met the woman who transformed female boxing, who put the sport on the map, about the first time then-Christy Salters walked into his gym in Bristol, Tennessee, her mother and a Pomeranian in tow.
Related story on The Daily Beast: Manny Pacquiao, Boxing's Biggest Star
Jim took one look at the entourage and figured on the best way he could scare her off: He'd put her in the ring with a male boxer, maybe have the guy crack her ribs, and she'd be out of his hair.
That's not the way the story goes, though-at least not for the next two decades.
There is a story Jim Martin liked to tell about the first time he met the woman who transformed female boxing, who put the sport on the map, about the first time then-Christy Salters walked into his gym in Bristol, Tennessee, her mother and a Pomeranian in tow.
Related story on The Daily Beast: Manny Pacquiao, Boxing's Biggest Star
Jim took one look at the entourage and figured on the best way he could scare her off: He'd put her in the ring with a male boxer, maybe have the guy crack her ribs, and she'd be out of his hair.
That's not the way the story goes, though-at least not for the next two decades.
- 12/17/2010
- by Winston Ross
- The Daily Beast
As David Lynch knows, there's nothing scarier than white picket fences, old-fashioned red fire engines and a grandfatherly figure hosing down a manicured green lawn. Hidden behind his innocuous vision of Americana lies an insidious layer of viciousness, perversity and oppression.
On the eve of mid-term elections, the opening of Lynch's 1986 classic "Blue Velvet" offers a vivid reminder of the rosy-hued mystique of the right-wing dream machine embodied in the type of campaign commercials that stake their reputation on anachronistic fantasies of idealized suburban and rural life that, as Lynch revealed, conceal far more sinister ideologies at work.
But Lynch is the exception, of course, not the rule. Despite the claims of conservative media, Hollywood is not always a liberal bastion. Where can you find airbrushed images of American wholesomeness, supposed racial harmony and gender equality, and flag-waving triumphalism come from? Mainstream movies, of course.
Salon film critic Andrew O'Hehir's...
On the eve of mid-term elections, the opening of Lynch's 1986 classic "Blue Velvet" offers a vivid reminder of the rosy-hued mystique of the right-wing dream machine embodied in the type of campaign commercials that stake their reputation on anachronistic fantasies of idealized suburban and rural life that, as Lynch revealed, conceal far more sinister ideologies at work.
But Lynch is the exception, of course, not the rule. Despite the claims of conservative media, Hollywood is not always a liberal bastion. Where can you find airbrushed images of American wholesomeness, supposed racial harmony and gender equality, and flag-waving triumphalism come from? Mainstream movies, of course.
Salon film critic Andrew O'Hehir's...
- 10/28/2010
- by Anthony Kaufman
- ifc.com
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