Million Dollar Baby
I didn't think I would like Million Dollar Baby--that's why it took me so long to see it. Although I have an admitted soft spot for movies about boxers (one of these days I'll review Girlfight and you'll see what I'm talking about), I have whatever is opposite of a soft spot (a hard spot?) for both Clint Eastwood and Hilary Swank. Between this, the ridiculous hype the movie generated when it first came out, and the fierce criticism leveled at it by the disability community, I wanted nothing to do with it. But alas, I thought we needed some more movies about female athletes on Heroine Content, so I put my preconceptions aside and put it on my Netflix queue.
There were a couple of things I liked about Million Dollar Baby.
I liked how the film used Morgan Freeman's character, a retired boxer named Scrap, to get into the way the boxing industry has historically used and thrown away black men. I liked the explicit way in which class background and class transition were addressed in the relationship between Hilary Swank's Maggie and her family, though I could have lived without the heavy-handed way in which Maggie was painted as a martyr and her family as greedy white trash. And, surprisingly, I liked Swank herself, whose physical transformation (she reportedly gained 19 lbs of muscle in 9 weeks while training for the film) made her believable as a boxer, something I never would have expected.
There were, however, many more things I did not like about the movie. I really hated the paternal relationship Eastwood's character, Frankie, had with Maggie. Is it not possible for a man to coach a woman in a sport without becoming her daddy? I despised how Maggie's path to becoming a respected boxer was to become as little of a "girl" as possible--surely we ought to know by now that denying your gender and becoming an "exception" that can be considered one of the boys is not truly heroinism. More than anything, though, I absolutely loathed the turn the movie took after the accident in which Maggie sustained her spinal injury.
After Maggie is injured, she is paralyzed, unable to move anything but her head or to breathe on her own. After several months of recovery, a major fight with her family about her financial assets, and the amputation of one of her legs due to a bedsore, Maggie asks Frankie to kill her. After some soul-searching, he does. That's pretty much the end of the film. The message is clear: if you can't move, you're better off dead.
Many disability activists and bloggers wrote about Million Dollar Baby when it came out, arguing vehemently against this perspective. They articulate much better than I ever could what's wrong with it. If you haven't read any of them, I suggest starting with this essay by Diane Coleman. Another good start is this essay by Mary Johnson at the Ragged Edge. Basically, the film gives no time or space to any argument for how or why Maggie's post-accident life could be worth living. It is a foregone conclusion that her life is over once she loses her ability to move and breathe independently. This is not only ridiculous, given the number of people in similar situations that continue to live full and happy lives, it's also incredibly irresponsible filmmaking.
Maggie isn't the only character in Million Dollar Baby who is discarded for being disabled. There is also a cognitively impaired character, Danger, played by Jay Baruchel, who may not be meant to exist only for the sake of comedy (much is made of his "big heart"), but comes off that way. And even Freeman's character Scrap is portrayed as someone whose life was tragically altered and somehow devalued when he was partially blinded. This combination leads to a film that feels like nothing so much as an embodiment of Clint Eastwood's disdain anybody who isn't the physical and mental specimen he thinks they should be.
I am giving Million Dollar Baby one star, mostly for the nod it gives to racism in boxing, and also for its attempt, though only partially successful, to address class transition. I am not, however, suggesting that you watch it.
10 Comments
Leave a comment
Heroine Content is a feminist and anti-racist space. Comments, including constructive criticism, are welcome as long as they are respectful. You do not have to agree with all of our ideas in order to comment, but we expect civility. We are not interested in creating yet another space on the internet for people to abuse each other. Please stick to debating and criticizing ideas rather than personal attacks.
All comments are reviewed by the blog's authors before being published, and may be deleted if we don't feel they follow these guidelines. Our blog, our discretion.
Subscribe to posts
Thanks for the review!
While I can more than imagine why any female would have issue with Clint Eastwood, why Hilary Swank? Is it her acting? The films she chooses to do? The only film I've actually seen her in is Buffy the Vampire Slayer, hehe. :)
thanks!
"I liked Swank herself, whose physical transformation (she reportedly gained 19 lbs of muscle in 9 weeks while training for the film) made her believable as a boxer, something I never would have expected."
Her transformation was impressive but not entirely unexpected. Hilary Swank is a superb athlete in real life, too; e.g., she was a highly ranked gymnast and swam in the Junior Olympics when she was younger. That is why Clint Eastwood felt confident she could put on a large amount of muscle in such a short time. His judgment turns out to have been spot on.
I can understand not liking the turn the movie took after Maggie's injury (beyond that criticisms get to be nitpicking, I think). Nevertheless, Hilary Swank gave a truly memorable performance, one that, to my mind, makes "Million Dollar Baby" more than just a typical movie.
I found the film inspirational in the first 30 minutes, the lonely abused white girl fighting the whole world, not just her family, then I found it deeply racist, the Berlin Bear a black prostitute who fights dirty and is clad in black leather, sure! who breaks her neck! never happened ever! Then the low class white hill billy family are so evil and just want her money, and tell her how much of a loser she is, they deserve to be poor and stupid! lovely character development.
And then Hilary Swanks character just gives up and wants to die, nice! she fought against so much and now she just wants to die, please! what a terrible story with not even a toe hold on reality, shame on people for making such a stupid film.
I think people shouldn't get hung up on the disability aspect. Its not a film about disability its a film about redemption and having a dream. Maggie got to live her dream against all odds and Eastwoods character got to be a decent father figure after failing his own daughter. Maggie choses to die because she has lost the ability to do the only thing she cared about in her life that made her feel worthwhile. I thought Eastwood handled the relationships and events in a considered, understated way. Grace, you're not doing feminists any favours by kicking off about a film you obviously dont understand. Dont look so hard for what you dislike.
Maybe I'm off track here but what got me was how an obnoxious white character who used the n-word right in front of Morgan Freeman was forgiven because he was just being 'ignorant' while a young black male character is seen as cocky[sic]and 'gangsta' and Mr. Freeman actually gets angry when he beats the bigoted jerk up and rushes to his defense HUH?!! Talk about insulting and I thought the whole 'white trash' thing was overdone too.
this film rocks!!!
I agree with Anthony. I accept the film for what it was. I am not hung up on Liberalism. I loved the acting. All three main characters did a phenominal job in my opinion. I enjoyed it so much, I went to the library to get the book, which I found very disappointing. Marcie
Pretty clearly, given our mission here, we at HC are "hung up on liberalism," if what you mean by that is something close to "concerned about the realistic and nuanced portrayals of non-white, non-male, non-physically typical, etc. people."
Being in healthcare for 14yrs, the fact that she lost her leg to bed sores; which is only found in the most budget-depleted, poorly operated acute facilities in the country, would EVER have a patient with bedsores to begin with (ie; patient is never moved, no PT is involved, et), let alone amputation. It's simply ridiculous to any of us that have been in the healthcare market for 1yr or less.
Anyway, the movie was fairly good except for the typical hollywood BS.
MH
Clint Eastwood is one of if not the best actors ever. Can anyone else come up with a guy that has I belive almost 150 movies to his name.