Million Dollar Baby

Movie Review: The Million Dollar Baby

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Movie Synopsis

Million Dollar Baby is a sports movie fused with drama and a dash romance with a running time of two hours and twelve minutes and its characters and the events that unfold are based on a true story. The movie tells the story of Frankie Dunn, an aging boxing trainer who happens to be a veteran in the sport and has committed the entirety of his life to the game but with very little to show for his work.

Enters Maggie Fitzgerald who walks into Frankie’s gym and asks him to train her but Frankie is skeptical about the matter because he does not rank female boxing highly and he considered her too old at the age of 31 especially without neither experience nor technique to fight in the ring. Frankie also bears great guilt from back in the day when he was training his best friend and most loyal employee who suffered an eye injury that ruled him out of the sport.

But Maggie would persist until Frankie accepts to train her and she develops into a strong fighter racking up win after win and a strong emotional bond is formed between the two who are also having off the ring complications with their families. Frankie’s daughter never responds to his frequent letters, his gym is facing closure by the bank and a fighter he was training signs up with a different manager as soon as he gets hot leaving Frankie out to dry.  

Maggie tries to form a relationship with her mother and sister but their only concern with Maggie is the money that she is making as a boxer and how much of that they could solicit from her after an unfortunate tragedy that she eventually succumbed to in hospital occurred during what would be her final boxing match.  

  Sports is an integral part of the American culture and can be classified as high culture held strongly by its people. As a country, America is rich in history and this history is synonymous with sports as well. What might have begun a hundred years ago as players on a dusty field tossing a ball has rapidly evolved into a spectacle gracing attention from not only the country alone but the entire world and with it sports has created a lot of revenue and jobs not only for the participants but for the people of America.

This is clear with the emergence of 24 hour sports networks, sports magazines and an eternity of blogs and websites dedicated to sports. The field of medicine has also been involved with sporting healthcare demanding attention. To say sports commands a religious following would be very appropriate. Some people have their Jesus, some have their Muhammad, and some have their Tysons, Tiger Woods, Williams and Kobe Bryants. The athletes have a cult following as world superstars in their respective fields.

Talent cultivation for sports is done for children from as early as the age of five through to their teens in preparation to when they become a professional athlete in their respective fields. In the movie, we can see Frankie refuse to coach Maggie with the excuse that she was 31 years of age at the time and that is not a very ripe age for a boxer. Frankie also said that at that age learning technique and the right skills was a waste of time.

 The sporting field in America helps shape the country’s culture through sporting events, sporting merchandise, sporting fan base and the sporting history which is very integral. This is because sports history has helped people learn more about American history in general in regards to how people dealt with issues of race, gender and differences in ethnicity. In the movie we can see how Frankie refused consistently to train Maggie claiming repeatedly that he does not train girls yet boxing although dominated by men as almost every other sport, also has female fighters with very little rules modified to suit them.

Despite training her for a brief while, Frankie was still reluctant to be at her ringside during her first match but eventually obliged after much persistence from his best friend. Today, this stereotype still exists and the world of tennis could not escape it as well as Caroline Wozniacki, a female tennis player mocked Serena Williams’ body by stuffing her sports bra with towels. We can also see Maggie’s mother discouraging Maggie from boxing saying that she should find herself her a husband and quit embarrassing herself.