Million Dollar Baby: A Melodramatic Masterpiece
“Million Dollar Baby” is a highly professional film, well-directed and acted, touching and “true to life.” It deservedly earned its four Oscars out of seven nominations. It boasts a remarkable backdrop, one that extends beyond the typical “rise to the top” narrative, imbued with emotional subtlety and a wealth of vivid details. It’s nearly impossible to hold back tears at the end, even if you were devoid of emotion beforehand. However, the extreme circumstances that drive a 30-year-old woman to enter the boxing ring are merely part of the backdrop, nothing more.
Indeed, this film, highly professional, well-directed and acted, touching and “true to life,” earned its four Oscars out of seven nominations. It’s nearly impossible to hold back tears at the end, even if you were devoid of emotion beforehand. “Million Dollar Baby” is a prime example of modern melodrama, innovating within its genre. Contemporary melodrama can no longer be glamorous, romantic, or focused on beautiful people. It’s filled with dingy rooms, leftovers, and old televisions. It’s full of dirt and blood, far from resembling beet juice. But if all of this is inspired and purposeful, if a human life is full of turbulent twists and turns, and if fate plays a role, the melodrama remains compelling, evoking empathy and sustaining interest. It’s a film that can be enjoyed by both men and women.
The Limits of Melodrama
Nevertheless, any audience of “Million Dollar Baby” must acknowledge that the genre is inherently limited, never revealing more about life than a “private case,” never resolving any problems, no matter how significant. If the heartbreaking story of a 30-year-old impoverished woman, realizing she’s an “outcast” and trying to find a way out, strictly adheres to the laws of melodrama, it remains merely the private story of this specific impoverished woman. You can empathize with the film even more intensely, but you shouldn’t think about it afterward. What is there to think about? Besides euthanasia, the film doesn’t examine anything closely. Only in early youth does the thought “how will I die” plague us. “Just don’t let me suffer for long.” Over time, we increasingly understand that death depends less on us, and what will be, will be. Otherwise, the film is occupied with the classic genre schematism of the “rise to the top” – gym, training, fights, the struggle for “title” fights – simply on the unconventional example of women’s boxing. It boasts a remarkable backdrop, one that extends beyond the typical “rise to the top” narrative, imbued with emotional subtlety and a wealth of vivid details. However, the extreme circumstances that drive a 30-year-old woman to enter the boxing ring instead of track and field or rhythmic gymnastics are merely part of the backdrop, nothing more.
Manipulating Emotions
The film doesn’t focus on the fact that all of Swank’s fights look like “special effects,” as something unnatural, but merely uses them to manipulate the audience’s emotions. The fact that the main rival, the “current champion,” was a “prostitute from East Berlin” before boxing is mentioned in passing. The fact that boxing itself is an anomaly of soul and body, an exemplary sublimation of human cruelty, which is engaged in precisely by “outcasts” who become experimental animals for the laughing “elite” with burning eyes, is not mentioned at all. By the way, euthanasia in the film is also not a social problem, where some doctors are unjustly judged for it, and some doctors cover up murders with it. No, Eastwood makes a personal choice, and in this aspect, he will not raise doubts in anyone. But, besides Eastwood, it won’t affect anyone. But in life, cruelty, outcasts, murders, and injustice are everywhere, and this needs to be addressed, and it’s too early to gloss over it. From the point of view of cinema as a whole, as a way of life, “Million Dollar Baby” is not very impressive. It specifically speculates on social issues, although it does so honestly, sincerely, even wisely. The old American “boxing” film classics (“Champion” (1949), “Raging Bull” (1980)) speculated less, impressed more. At the same time, “The Aviator” (2004) wanted to encourage America to work on itself, while “Million Dollar Baby” gave the opportunity to cry over oneself. What America chooses will not be what we have to cry about later.
Honesty and Character
Nevertheless, the honesty lies in the fact that even before the catastrophe, Hilary Swank was not afraid to spend half the film with blood flowing from her nose to her upper lip, and with a swollen left eye, an awkward ugly duckling, but with a character that is visible in just a few phrases: “She liked to solve all problems in the first round,” “All the problems in my family are from excess weight,” “This is the second person to talk to me about love. Before him was my late father.” The character is supported by real physical training. It is clear that Swank was not idle before filming. For his part, Clint Eastwood has acquired a previously absent nobility of appearance over the years, becoming a spitting image of Henry Fonda, thanks to which any action of the coach on the screen is one hundred percent and not subject to discussion. The character of the coach is also short and clear: Gaelic language, Yeats’ poetry, church, letters. Morgan Freeman in the role of the cleaner adds a drop of humor, in addition to that wisdom, and his voice-over commentary provides the very life foundations of the sport called “boxing.” It’s not very interesting to watch only the first ten minutes, then you get involved. The dramaturgy is compact, the direction is strong, the rhythm is tough.
The Family Dynamic
The best thing about the film is the image of Maggie’s family. From such a mother, sister, and brother, you’ll not only end up in the boxing ring.
The family is an absolutely complete image of meanness, almost Fassbinderian. This kind of debunking of the notorious “family values” for America is a real breakthrough.