Million Dollar Baby Critique

A good movie not only entertains someone, but it makes them think about the film and how it relates to life. An amazing movie makes viewers think about the film long after watching it and has an impact on their life. Million Dollar Baby is a spectacular example of all these factors. Million Dollar Baby is a dramatic film directed by Clint Eastwood and it stars Hilary Swank as Maggie Fitzgerald, a poor boxer who is determined to become the very best she can be. Million Dollar Baby is a perfect example of a drama film because it has a complex and engaging conflict, the characters are believable and appealing, and the conflict is constantly switching gears, taking captive of the audience’s attention and grasping it until the very end of the film, resulting in an enthusiastic viewing. 

Million Dollar Baby tells the inspirational story of Maggie Fitzgerald, a hard working, dedicated, and inspired rookie boxer who will do whatever it takes to be the best. The story opens in the main setting of the movie, the Hit Pit gym, where Maggie Fitzgerald, Frankie Dunn, and Eddie "Scrap-Iron" Dupris are introduced. From the very start, it’s obvious Frankie is a hard-ass, strict, and “in charge” man. Scrap is the opposite and is compassionate, sincere, and wise. Frankie finds Maggie training in the gym and immediately starts to judge her. He tries to kick her out of the gym and discourage her, but she is determined to prove him wrong. She attempts to recruit him to be her trainer, but he quickly declines and states, “I don’t train girls”. After spending long hours in the gym, saving up for nice boxing equipment, and getting secret lessons from Scrap, Frankie finally agrees to train her. 

Frankie and Maggie start to train and eventually Maggie is prepared for her first fight. She has difficulty knocking out her opponent; Frankie gives her advice that he says she must follow no matter what she is doing: “Always protect yourself”. Maggie then proceeds to protect herself so she isn’t being attacked and it helps her attack her opponent, resulting in a knockout. Maggie then proceeds to fight and starts getting better and better to the point where she is making enough money to support herself and her family; she is winning every fight she enters. However, things take a turn for the worse when she decides to use her saved up money to buy a house for her mother. Her mother mocks her, is upset she will no longer receive welfare and tells her daughter that everybody laughs at her. Maggie then has to face another challenge: to win the British Boxing Championship, she must face a strong, dirty, female fighter. In a shocking twist of events, Maggie’s match results in her life dramatically changing forever, impacting herself and the ones she loves. Overall, Million Dollar Baby is a story about how far hard work and dedication can take a person, and how fast the world can turn against you.

A complex, but understandable, conflict is important because a simple conflict can often become a bore in a drama film. If the conflict is complex then the audience will be constantly engaged in the film. If a drama film had a simple conflict, then the film will feel very long and stretched out which will result in an audience losing interest in the movie. However, if the conflict is too complex then it will confuse the target audience and they will lose interest in the movie. This film completes the criteria for having an understandable and complex conflict for many reasons. There is the conflict of Maggie trying to be the greatest boxer she can be, even when all the odds are against her. Then the conflict because more complex because her two companions have personal problems that need to be resolved. Frankie needs security and a father-daughter relationship to make up for how he failed to be a good father for his first daughter. Scrap needs to keep the gym running and protect a rookie boxer, Danger, from being bullied by other members of the gym. He also has the responsibility of fixing Frankie’s problems. These conflicts are complex, but understandable to the audience so they do not lose interest. 

Not only should characters be interesting in a good drama film, but they must also be believable. This is important because an audience should be able to empathize with the characters and care enough about them to either root for them or against them. Without interesting and believable characters the audience won’t care what happens to them. Maggie is interesting because she came from a troubled family and managed to escape them and start her own life. She is believable because she is struggling financially in life like a lot of people. Frankie is interesting because he goes to church every single day and the audience doesn’t know why until the end and he is believable because he is older and has regrets in his life which is a common problem with an older gentleman. These are all interesting takes on characters that leave the audience involved in the plot. 

Another key point to drama movies is a significant antagonist. Without a significant antagonist, the conflict can seem to drag out to the audience and can result in the movie becoming less interesting for viewers. A great antagonist can either be human or an idea, as long as they come to clash with the protagonist. The antagonist in Million Dollar Baby is not another person like typical movies, but instead a force. This force is society as a whole. All throughout Maggie’s life, the odds have been against her. She was raised in a poor, harsh, and white trash family. She was looked down upon society but was able to rise to the challenges faced before her and she broke free of her family and got a job and her own apartment. Movies can have more than one protagonist and that plays a role in a complex plot. The antagonist in the beginning of the movies happens to be Frankie, who is a protagonist by the end of the movie. However, in the first act, Frankie refused to accept Maggie as a boxer. He constantly ridiculed and mocked her, refusing to train her. Maggie did her best to overcome this obstacle and through persistence, dedication, and hard work, she was eventually able to overcome Frankie and start her journey of becoming a boxer.

Although most people view this movie as an excellent dramatic film, there is also a small majority of those who do not. Among one of those few is Rob Gonsalves, a writer for EFilmCritic.com who wrote the review titled “Million Dollar Baby”. Gonsalves starts off his review by stating Million Dollar Baby is a film that is gritty, dark and all about death. He explains he thinks the director, Clint Eastwood, is trying to make something spectacular but fails to do so because the script isn’t complex and the film is overall generic (Gonsalves 1). To support his argument, he goes in-depth about the main character, Maggie. He talks about how she is dedicated and rose above her white trash family. He believes this is a generic take on a character and that doesn’t make her complex. He then also goes into detail about Frankie and explains he is the typical masculine trainer who doesn’t give the main character a chance. He then finalizes his statement by talking about Morgan Freeman’s character, Scrap, and how he is generous by constantly providing his services for free. He then talks about how Scrap is the narrator of the story, just like every other Morgan Freeman character. Gonsalves then wraps up his review by stating this film would have been great if it was made earlier, but due to the fact it wasn’t, the script is not complex enough to stand out among all the other sports movies. 

Gonsalves tries to support his argument of Million Dollar Baby being a bad film by stating it is dark, gloomy, and about death. However, this is a huge exaggeration. The film is an inspirational story about a rookie boxer who rises against all odds. The story takes a dark turn during the crisis of the film, but that is less than ¼ of the movie. He also argues Million Dollar Baby is a bad movie because the script is not complex and it is generic. Although the film may be generic at some points, that is also a small portion of the movie. The film takes a defining turn that separates it from other movies at the crisis of the film, making the movie far from generic. There are arguably three main characters to the story and each of them has an aspect of their character that hasn’t been looked at before by other movies. They may have one aspect of their character that is similar to another character but they are still unique. Maggie is the underdog, but there is so much more to her character than being an underdog. However, Gonsalves fails to talk about these aspects to the characters and focuses on points that support his position on the film, leaving little room for complexity in the review. 

Another reviewer who doesn’t believe Million Dollar Baby is a good film is Karen Wyman, who writes for Off Our Backs and wrote the article “Tough Ain’t Enough: Million Dollar Baby: No Real Options for Women?” In this review, the author starts off by claiming the film portrays women in a negative way and the only women in the film fall into hurtful stereotypes. Wyman starts off by looking at the main character, Maggie. He explains that in the film, Maggie’s only positive role model was her father. She did not consider her mother a model and eventually developed a father-daughter relationship with Frankie. Wyman believes Maggie’s scenario falls into the stereotype that women need to be managed by men. She lets Frankie decide when she will train, what her boxing name will be, and whether or not she will die. Wyman then moves on to the next women in the movie, Maggie’s mother. Maggie’s mother, Earline, is shown as a fat, lazy, inconsiderate, and a cheater. Wyman argues that this negatively displays fat people as awful people who are lazy and greedy. She also argues that Earline promotes the stereotype that one of the few options for women is to get fat and cheat the system, like how Earline is on welfare. Wyman then moves on to the final female character in the film, the dirty boxer Billie. Billie stops at nothing to get what she wants and has the attitude of a man. Wyman explains this enforces the stereotype that women must break the rules and act like men in order to make it in today’s society. 

Although Wyman has a compelling argument, she is digging too deep into the film and uses only what supports her argument. For example, Wyman argues Maggie is dependent on men to do everything for her and she argues this by stating how Maggie develops a father-daughter relationship with Frankie. However, is not true. Maggie doesn’t develop that relationship until near the end of the film. For a huge majority of the film, Maggie is seen as a strong-willed, independent women. Even when she develops a relationship with Frankie she is still an independent woman. She still makes her own decisions and when Frankie does something she doesn’t agree with and refuses to cooperate. Next, Wyman talks about Maggie’s mother by saying she is depicted to show all fat people are evil and women have no choice but to become horrible people. However, this is untrue because earlier in the film, Maggie says even when her mother was nice, she was still overweight. This shows the purpose of the character wasn’t to depict fat people as awful, but just a specific person. Finally, Wyman argues Billie had to become like a man to be successful in life, but that isn’t true. Boxing is a very competitive and tough sport. To be a boxer, it requires someone to be mentally and physically tough, just because that is typically a characteristic of a male does not mean the film is trying to depict that women must become manly to be successful. 

Movies are extremely difficult to make, but when done right they can be very powerful. A perfect example of a great movie is Million Dollar Baby. Million Dollar Baby is a perfect example of a great drama film because it has a complex and engaging conflict, the characters are believable and appealing, and the conflict is constantly switching gears, taking captive of the audience’s attention both during and after the movie. It empowers people to think about how they live and what is important to them in life, while also encouraging them to be persistent in achieving their dreams.