Million Dollar Baby (2004)

A determined woman works with a hardened boxing trainer to become a professional.

Director:

Clint Eastwood

Writers:

Paul Haggis (screenplay), F.X. Toole (stories)

Stars:

Hilary Swank, Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman

Top Rated Movies #203 | Won 4 Oscars. Another 63 wins & 83 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Clint Eastwood	...	Frankie Dunn
Hilary Swank	...	Maggie Fitzgerald
Morgan Freeman	...	Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris
Jay Baruchel	...	Danger Barch
Mike Colter	...	Big Willie Little
Lucia Rijker	...	Billie 'The Blue Bear'
Brían F. O'Byrne	...	Father Horvak (as Brían O'Byrne)
Anthony Mackie	...	Shawrelle Berry
Margo Martindale	...	Earline Fitzgerald
Riki Lindhome	...	Mardell Fitzgerald
Michael Peña	...	Omar
Benito Martinez	...	Billie's Manager
Bruce MacVittie	...	Mickey Mack
David Powledge	...	Counterman at Diner
Joe D'Angerio	...	Cut Man (as Joe d'Angerio)

Storyline

Wanting to learn from the best, aspiring boxer Maggie Fitzgerald wants Frankie Dunn to train her. At the outset he flatly refuses saying he has no interest in training a girl. Frankie leads a lonely existence, alienated from his only daughter and having few friends. Maggie's rough around the edges but shows a lot of grit in the ring and he eventually relents. Maggie not only proves to be the boxer he always dreamed of having under his wing but a friend who fills the great void he's had in his life. Maggie's career skyrockets but an accident in the ring leads her to ask Frankie for one last favor.

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Plot Keywords:

boxing | boxing trainer | women boxing | death | suicide attempt | 

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Taglines:

Beyond his silence, there is a past. Beyond her dreams, there is a feeling. Beyond hope, there is a memory. Beyond their journey, there is a love.

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Genres:

Drama | Sport

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for violence, some disturbing images, thematic material and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook

Country:

USA

Language:

English Irish

Release Date:

28 January 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

Rope Burns

Filming Locations:

Hollywood Athletic Club - 6525 W. Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$30,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$179,953, 19 December 2004, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$100,492,203

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$216,763,646

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros.,Lakeshore Entertainment,Malpaso Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

132 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Anjelica Huston originally brought the book "Rope Burns" to producer Albert S. Ruddy's attention, hoping that he would ask her to direct the film. (She guaranteed that he would cry after reading the "Million Dollar Baby" story, and he admits that he did.) However, by the time Ruddy acquired the rights, Huston was busy on another project.

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Goofs

The first scene with Father Horvak is an overhead shot of him leaving the church talking with a parishioner. The parishioner has a bag in her right hand. The next shot switches to a head-on shot of them a second later but the parishioner has the bag in her left hand, too fast for her to have switched hands between the two shots.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris: [Narrating] Only ever met one man I wouldn't wanna fight. When I met him he was already the best cut man in the business. Started training and managing in the sixties, but never lost his gift.

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Crazy Credits

The Warner Brothers logo is the classic shield version, shown in a color palette (mainly black and white, with a dark green tint) matching the "feel" of the movie, and is static instead of the modern 3D animated sequence.

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Connections

Referenced in Epic Rap Battles of History: Bruce Lee vs. Clint Eastwood (2012)

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Soundtracks

Blue Diner
Written by Kyle Eastwood and Michael Stevens

User Reviews

It's a knockout ...

Flawlessly written, acted and directed, MILLION DOLLAR BABY is being hymned and wreathed by the critics as the best film of 2004. They're absolutely right. "An old master's new masterpiece," the NEW YORK TIMES said in a review that was more of an open love letter to Eastwood than anything remotely resembling a critical analysis of the film itself. For once such honey-tongued critical adulation is fully merited. Dark, edgy, subtle and at times emotionally devastating, MILLION DOLLAR BABY represents the apotheosis of Eastwood's art - the most lucid and intelligently limned expression of his philosophy of the outsider, the noble loners whose personal codes of honour set them both above and apart from the compromised, corrupt societies they inhabit. The Boxing Ring As Metaphor For Life is a hoary trope almost as old as Hollywood itself, employed to varying effect in films as diverse as THE CHAMP, GOLDEN BOY, REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT, THE GREAT WHITE HOPE, FAT CITY, ROCKY and RAGING BULL. In MILLION DOLLAR BABY, though, Eastwood the director brings a fresh eye and an entirely fresh approach to both the setting and characterisations, virtually re-inventing this venerable sub-genre rather than simply recycling its conventions. Eastwood the actor is in fine form - a commanding if increasingly weather-beaten presence - as gym owner Frankie Dunn. A case study in loneliness, Dunn's creased face is a map of places you'd rather not go to and disappointment has clearly been a life-long companion. Co-stars Hilary Swank and the magnificent Morgan Freeman, playing Frankie's unlikely protegee Maggie Fitzgerald and friend "Scrap-Iron" Dupris, give what are without question the best performances of their respective careers: deftly underplayed, their roles provide emotionally overwhelming impacts more powerful than anything glimpsed in the film's riotous fight sequences. Forming an iron triangle forged from mutual dependence, Dunn and Dupris school the impulsive but untutored Maggie in both the techniques of boxing and the tradecraft of survival in a world pre-disposed to pulverise individualism. The canvas-floored square ring becomes the arena in which all three characters confront their various demons, battling for both victory and personal redemption. Paul Haggis' screenplay is itself a masterwork, improving on its source material without betraying the concise but compelling situations and superbly drawn characters found in F.X. Toole's short stories. And, finally, Eastwood the composer's elegiac but unobtrusive score is a minor classic of its kind, a requiem to both lost souls and lost causes. MILLION DOLLAR BABY is not only the best film released in 2004 it is also the most fully realised and richly textured major studio movie of the decade.