A Pilgrim’s Digression

Million Dollar Baby

I thought this film was every bit as good as the hype surrounding it. Eastwood and Freeman work well together, as first evidenced in another favorite film of mine, Unforgiven. The power of this film is in its naturalism. More often than not in life, things just don’t work out very well. While one can say that Maggie Fitzgerald did achieve her life’s goal, a director with less integrity than Eastwood would have softened the film by having Maggie survive or recover from her last fight; or at the very least, Eastwood would have reunited with his daughter in the end. Neither of these happy endings occur.

My only criticism of the film is in its portrayal of Maggie’s family as trailer park trash. Her mother, brother, and sister are pretty vicious stereotypes with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Eastwood is good at showing us deep, well-developed characters with both good and bad qualities. Maggie’s family are all bad, and (speaking from experience with trailer park folks here) not necessarily true to life.

I am also a bit uncomfortable with the portrayal of Blacks in this film. The Black fighters are portrayed as double-crossers and cheaters. Willie betrays Frankie by dumping him for another manager as soon as Frankie takes him all the way to the championship, and of course the fighter who fatally injures Maggie is a black woman whose fighting style is characterized by cheap shots and fierce brutality, as opposed to the very white Maggie’s pluck and innocence. In the scene in which Frankie negotiates for a championship bout between Maggie and the Blue Bear, as the Black female fighter is known, he asks for a 60% cut of the profits because Maggie will be the star attraction. The Bear expresses disdain at this comment; she is after all the Champion. Frankie says (paraphrasing), “Why would anyone want to watch a scabby German whore like you when they’ve got an underdog like Maggie to root for?”