If one looked at Clint Eastwood's career in the early 1980s, during which time he was starring in the umpteenth \Dirty Harry"" sequel and other mediocre films that may or may not have co-starred an orangutan, it would have been perfectly natural to laugh at the notion that he would one day be regarded as one of the most talented directors in Hollywood.
With his new film, ""Million Dollar Baby,"" Eastwood shows he is still a vital talent to cinema both in front of and behind the camera, giving what may rival ""Unforgiven"" as his best directorial work.
On paper, the characters of ""Million Dollar Baby"" seem like tired conventions. Eastwood plays Frankie, a grizzled boxing trainer for whom coaching a champion fighter has always been just out of reach. Frankie owns and manages his own gym, at which Eddie (Morgan Freeman), a has-been fighter with whom Frankie is friends, works and resides.
Enter Maggie Fitzgerald (Hillary Swank), a white-trash tomboy who works as a waitress when she's not training in the gym Eastwood owns. After realizing Maggie won't stop frequenting his establishment until he agrees to train her, Frankie takes on his first girl fighter. Together he and Maggie begin the path toward building a championship fighter.
If this were a typical Hollywood film, the story would be one of cheesy montages and tired catch phrases. What keeps the story entertaining and new is a combination of clever wordplay from screenwriter Paul Haggis and a trio of phenomenal performances from Eastwood, Swank and Freeman. Each of the three central characters is developed enough so that we care about them as people first and as athletes second. Freeman's character is especially impressive, as his supporting role is actually better-developed than many leading characters in Hollywood films.
There are no shortcuts taken in this film. Each character reveals their past to us so that we know what is at stake for them, yet there still remains an amount of ambiguity surrounding Frankie's character that ultimately ties the film together. It is this careful management of familiarity and mystery that progresses the story, creating a genuine interest in the psychology of Frankie, Maggie and Eddie, rather than just a waning interest in whether Maggie can win a championship fight.
""Million Dollar Baby"" is a film that starts off simply, yet slowly but surely pulls the viewer in until one is fully engrossed in the fate of the three characters. It is the third and final act of the film that shows why the first two acts are so methodical, so personal in their nature. Yet to describe any events of the last act of the movie is to do an injustice to Clint Eastwood, as ""Million Dollar Baby"" is a film with a payoff as great as they come. It is in this act that the shackles of other sporting films are thrown off and one can see ""Million Dollar Baby"" is not really a film about boxing. It is a film about people who just happen to be boxers.
There is a scene in ""Million Dollar Baby"" in which Maggie asks Frankie what he will do when he is finally done with boxing. Frankie replies, ""I'll never quit. I like the stink too well, I guess."" One can only hope that this line serves as a sly metaphor for Eastwood's directorial career, as I suspect it does. If Clint Eastwood can keep making movies that are as spectacular as ""Million Dollar Baby,"" here's hoping that he keeps working for quite some time.
