Million Dollar Baby
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Released in 2007, the film was directed by "Old Cowboy" Clint Eastwood and starring Hilary Swank, based on F.X. Tours' short story of the same name. He was nominated for seven Oscars and won four "Best" heavyweight awards.
The film mainly revolves between Maggie, who loves boxing, and boxing coach Frankie.
The film uses Morgan Freeman's narration to tell the audience that boxing has always been a violent world of you and me. In terms of narrative, the most distinctive feature of this film is undoubtedly the addition of Morgan Freeman's narration, and there are many plots in the film, which are told by him. Morgan Freeman has a voice that is considered by the industry to be the closest to "God".
Maggie, who is passionate about her boxing dreams, hopes to get Frankie's guidance, but is repeatedly rejected by the conservative opponent. Frankie's friend, Eddie, unearthed a scarce quality from Maggie, "willing to gamble everything on dreams that others can't understand." It is worth mentioning. Director Eastwood is a well-known hardcore rightist in Hollywood, whether he starred in or directed movies, he has a strong right-wing temperament and takes a hard-line style. Although the core of this film is quite hard, it is extremely delicate and smooth in the emotional transformation and transition of the characters.
Faced with the fact that his judgment was wrong, the elderly Frankie also silently admitted his mistake, thus naturally continuing the plot of Maggie's boxing practice.
The first half of the film is a traditional sports inspirational film that makes people's blood boil and can't help but be funny, and the second half takes a sharp turn, pulling the film out of the routine, moving to a new realm, and sublimating the connotation of the film again.
"Million Dollar Baby" is an atypical inspirational film, because the protagonist does not achieve worldly success in the end, and Hollywood's golden oil routine is completely broken by the accident behind (Maggie's cervical spine is seriously damaged), but this is also the most moving part of the movie. The early plot is full of blood, and the later plot is full of emotion and philosophical atmosphere.
About how people face death is the essence of this film.
After being injured, Maggie is still the tough female boxer, and her attitude towards everything is still tough. Even in the face (choose) death. What she wanted to hear more was the applause and cheers of others, and regret and sympathy were the greatest harm to her. Choosing death is actually not an escape from self-pity and self-pity, but the attitude towards life that has always made her choose death. It's a film of the strong, not the winner.
Until now, there are still people who struggle with Maggie's failure to question the inspirational connotations of the film. Why is inspiration equal to success? Inspiration is not to let the weak replace another person as a strong person, but to let a weak person be able to compete with the strong. Of course, Maggie failed in boxing and was beaten to the brink of death.
But she still chooses the posture of the strong, she is still the master of life, is this not another kind of success?
Throughout the film, what the director wants to say is: "Choice". As long as a person has the courage to choose, he is free and noble. This is the logic of the strong that the director wants to express - to take responsibility for every choice he makes, even if it is the choice to die. As in the film," "We should face failures in life, even desperate failures."
Without the final Jedi Strike Back, without the final power to turn the tide, Clint Eastwood, choosing to interpret his view of life in a seemingly devastating way.
What exactly is a full life?
In the eyes of the director, if you can fight for your dream once, your life will be complete, no matter what the ending is, there are no regrets.
What's more, this ending is not tragic. The self-reliant Maggie has worked hard, been strong, and has been equally brilliant. Even when she was about to touch the crown and fell into the abyss, she did not despair. She has no complaints about her life, you can say that she is a loser, but you must not say that she is a tragedy, let alone that she is a weak person.
You know, from birth to death, her whole life has been lived as a strong person.
There is no so-called gorgeous skin bag in the whole film, no small fresh meat, and no flower Dan beautiful man. There are only two stubborn old men (Frankie, Eddie) and a lonely and stubborn older young woman (Maggie). The whole film does not have any visual effects, nor does it have a deafening auditory feast, nor does it have a bizarre and eerie plot. Everyone comes from the bottom of society, lives the same daily life, has unspeakable secrets, and experiences things that can be imagined but not understood.
In a short period of time, Maggie got the training she wanted, won the game, improved her material life, won the love of the audience, and became the female boxer of her dreams. But it is still not recognized by selfish relatives. They were ashamed of her profession and were not interested in anything about her except the money she earned.
All this is so real, but it is also frustrating. This film is really heartbroken.
In addition, one point has to be mentioned. In fact, now like "Million Dollar Baby", this right-wing style film, it is difficult to win an Oscar. For nearly a decade, Hollywood has been recognized as increasingly left-leaning. We can't give any comments about this, but we have to silently feel a little sorry for this kind of right-wing style film in our hearts.
It can only be said that there is no absolute good or bad between the left and the right, and human civilization is moving forward under the struggle between the left and the right. Politics is like that, and so is movies.