How did Million Dollar Baby win any awards?

[Jonathan Bryant]

I have met numerous people that feel like me. Did anyone notice the inconsistant lighting, dry dialog,slow pacing, poor acting performances by Eastwood and others, unbelieveable story line ( In real life Blue would have been disqualified early on, and as a doctor pointed out Maggie could have told her doc early on to just pull life support instead of forcing Frankie to kill her, also the doctor said "Adrenaline (ie. epinephrine) would not work the way it did here. A large enough dose would eventually kill you by causing you to have a heart attack or stroke but definately would not peacefully and instantaneously stop your heart." The two hours of boxing in which we only things we learn about Maggie is that she works in a dinner, she is tight on money so she steals food, and has a greedy family. I think her family was the only compelling part of the movie. Those actors were great especially the mother. I would have liked to have maybe experienced Maggies childhood, found out some of her beliefs,hobbies, friends etc... The first two hours could have been cut down to 15 minutes, it was draging by the time of the twist which as many people have pointed out after the twist and everything after that could never happen in real life. To add to all that Maggie choose to box for herself, she got hurt, and then she wants to die. I couldn't emotionaly connect with her character for all the above reasons and more.

 

It seems to me that this movie has only gotten its great success due to the highly emotionaly charged subject. Not on the actually script, performance, or movie making. Does anyone feel like I feel? For the life of me I can't understand how this won so many awards and is ranked like in the top 100 on IMDB.com.

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

I have avoided comment on this movie on the basis that the theme of traumatic introduction to severe disability is just a little too close to home, but suffice to say that I tend to agree. There's a line which seems to get movies made:

 

"My legs! I can't feel my legs!"

 

- usually delivered by an attractive young woman on waking up after the car accident. I can't even begin to guess how many bad TV movies have used this theme...

 

Phil

[Landon D. Parks]

I seen it, and I was not impressed. I don't see the big attraction to Clint Eastwood, He's like Spielberg, because he has been around since the start of time, people think he's something special.

 

I thought the story was dry, and the film draged on to much.

[Guest]

One big thing I could not figure out about this movie, perhaps a boxing expert can answer this?

 

Why was the stool she fell on still in the ring? I thought it was common practice to remove the stool from the ring while the fight is on?

 

R,

[drew_town]

I like the movie.

 

I think it works because at its core it's a destructive movie. After viewing Cinderella Man I claimed it to be the better of the boxing movies. Coincidently I just finished watching MDB again and realized how different the two movies really are, and how MDB couldn't function in CM's style. I can understand how someone could not like Million Dollar Baby. It just appealed to me in a more personal way. Cinderella Man appealed in quite the opposite way. I try not to get caught up in the picky details of this movie, because I think it overwrites its main appeal, character connections. And thus the acting awards.

[Tim J Durham]

One big thing I could not figure out about this movie, perhaps a boxing expert can answer this?

 

Why was the stool she fell on still in the ring?  I thought it was common practice to remove the stool from the ring while the fight is on?

 

R,

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The German woman attacked her from behind after the round had ended. Hence, Clint having put the stool down for her to sit on, as I recall.

 

I loved it. Well deserved Oscars. The much bigger crime from the Academy was in totally overlooking the best film documentary (and cinematography) of the year, which was "Touching the Void".

[Guest]

"The German woman attacked her from behind after the round had ended. Hence, Clint having put the stool down for her to sit on, as I recall."

 

Ok, what I don't understand about that explanation is that the stool was on its side when she fell on it with her neck. Know what I mean? The stool's legs where not on the floor, the stool was laying sideways.

 

R,

[Tim J Durham]

"The German woman attacked her from behind after the round had ended. Hence, Clint having put the stool down for her to sit on, as I recall."

 

Ok, what I don't understand about that explanation is that the stool was on its side when she fell on it with her neck.  Know what I mean?  The stool's legs where not on the floor, the stool was laying sideways.

 

R,

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It fell over when Clint put it in there? I don't remember exactly. It made perfect logical sense to me at the time, that's why I don't remember anything unusual about it now. I've been ringside at

a few big fights and many more small fights and the boxing milieu set up in the film was entirely realistic. I've shot hours and hours of boxers in training and I appreciated the way it was sentimentalized without glamourizing it in any way.

[drew_town]

"The German woman attacked her from behind after the round had ended. Hence, Clint having put the stool down for her to sit on, as I recall."

 

Ok, what I don't understand about that explanation is that the stool was on its side when she fell on it with her neck.  Know what I mean?  The stool's legs where not on the floor, the stool was laying sideways.

 

R,

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

He was going to put it up. The stool has to go in the ring on its side b/c of the ropes. She got hit as she was walking toward it and landed on it before it was put up. It?s a motif throughout the movie. You see it about ten times.

[Jason Maeda]

"inconsistant lighting, dry dialog,slow pacing, poor acting performances...unbelieveable story line..."

 

sounds like a film by bresson. do you think he sucks? i'm just saying, your expectations for cinema may very well change, and don't be surprised if you look back on that post and laugh someday. ;)

 

jk :ph34r:

[Sean Azze]

I enjoyed Million Dollar Baby quite a bit.

 

I loved the pacing because I felt like it really set the mood. The lighting was dark and drab, so it matched the setting perfectly for a seedy sport where punishing your opponent to a bloody pulp is how you achieve a victory. The acting was great. There were a few moments I would deem "Hollywood", but for the most part the film felt realistic. And the final quarter of the film completely threw me on my ass and took me out of the comfortable mood I was in. I think every great story should have surprises.

 

NOW, this being said, were the above mentioned characteristics the reasons why Million Dollar Baby won so many awards? In my opinion, NO, absolutely not. I'd say campaigning from the studio, the participation of cinema legends, and the controversial subject matter is what garnered this thing awards. Awards are so subjective - think of the dozens of films every year that are so special and yet get overlooked because they don't have the pull that Clint Eastwood has.

[Jonathan Bryant]

NOW, this being said, were the above mentioned characteristics the reasons why Million Dollar Baby won so many awards? In my opinion, NO, absolutely not. I'd say campaigning from the studio, the participation of cinema legends, and the controversial subject matter is what garnered this thing awards. Awards are so subjective - think of the dozens of films every year that are so special and yet get overlooked because they don't have the pull that Clint Eastwood has.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Isn't that a sad fact of this industry? Its all in who ya know. I think people should study the dialog in this movie. To me it didn't sound real, the actors and actresses sounded rehearsed, unatural, and forced. With that the storyline, poor sound, and the countless scenes that weren't based on real life facts. This has to be the worst movie of all time for me.

[Jason Maeda]

"the actors and actresses sounded rehearsed, unatural, and forced. With that the storyline, poor sound, and the countless scenes that weren't based on real life facts. This has to be the worst movie of all time for me."

 

you're probably not a very big cocteau fan, are you?

jk :ph34r:

Edited August 2, 2005 by jasonkollias

[oscar jimenez]

<i just liked pretty much the lightning on the film,

[Matt Pacini]

I haven't seen the film yet, but I will eventually, since I'm an Eastwood fan (more his directing than his acting) since I saw him work while working on "Bird". The most efficiently run production I've ever seen, and it's not that whole "he only does one take" thing you always hear about (which isn't true either).

 

Anyway, I'd have to say, I've pretty much lost interest in the Acadamy Awards in the last few years.

It seems like most of the winners (especially the acting categories) all end up being whichever films are stories about victims of some sort.

You know, if you feel REALLY sorry for the protagonist, (or there's some political point to be made), then that's the film that wins, whether or not it was actually the best film/performance.

 

But even more annoying, is how the technical awards, etc. are ignored. I even heard one announcer refer to them as being "the unimportant Academy Awards".

I realize a lot of the televised awards are for movie star fans, but I do find it irritating when for instance, the red carpet interviews they do are all about who is wearing what designers dress, etc.

While watching the AA's when Lord of the Rings cleaned house, when people were entering, they just totally ignored Peter Jackson, John C. Reilly, nearly bumping into these people to get past them to tell Julia Roberts or whoever (people not nominated, in other words) how beautiful she looked.

Really pathetic. Made me want to vomit and throw it at them.

The whole thing has basically morphed into something to sell Pepsi, Beer and Ford cars, if you ask me.

I'd much rather see the technical awards.

Better yet, I wish they would televise the Raspberry Awards!!!

 

MP

[sneeze proof]

As far as winning awards go, I try to ignore all of that now - after all, they gave Tom Hanks best actor over Daniel Day-Louise for christsake. Awards just seem to be given out for the wrong reasons.

 

I thought there were a couple of nice shots where you had the hard dark lighting of the boxing gym while still showing a softness in the characters, but I do agree that most aspects of this film fall well short of high praise. I just didn't feel emotion for any of the characters.

 

But that is just my spin.