Million Dollar Baby

Margaret "Maggie" Fitzgerald, a waitress from the Ozarks, shows up at the Hit Pit, a rundown boxing gym in Los Angeles owned and operated by Frankie Dunn. Dunn is a cantankerous Irish-American trainer, revealed to be estranged from his own daughter. Maggie asks Frankie to train her, but he refuses as he does not train women and she is too old to begin a boxing career. Eddie "Scrap-Iron" Dupris, Frankie's friend and employee—the film's narrator—encourages and helps Maggie. Frankie's prize prospect, "Big Willie" Little, signs with successful manager Mickey Mack after becoming impatient with Frankie rejecting offers for a championship bout. Frankie then reluctantly agrees to train Maggie.

Maggie fights her way up in the women's amateur boxing division with Frankie's coaching. Since she has earned a reputation for quick knockouts, Frankie must resort to bribery to get other managers to put their trainee fighters up against her. Scrap, concerned when Frankie rejects several offers for big fights, arranges a meeting for Maggie with Mickey Mack, but out of loyalty to Frankie, she declines. Frankie bestows Maggie a Gaelic nickname, embroidered on her boxing robe, Mo Chuisle (misspelled in the film as "mo cuishle"), but does not tell her its meaning. The two travel to Europe as she continues to win; Maggie eventually saves up enough of her winnings to buy her mother a house, but her mother berates Maggie for endangering her government aid, claiming that everyone back home is laughing at her.

Frankie is finally willing to arrange a title fight. He secures Maggie a $1 million match in Las Vegas against the WBA women's welterweight champion, Billie "The Blue Bear" Osterman, a German ex-prostitute who has a reputation as a dirty fighter. Maggie begins to dominate the fight, but Billie knocks her out with an illegal sucker punch from behind after the bell rings to end the round. Maggie lands hard on her corner stool, breaking her neck and leaving her a ventilator-dependent quadriplegic. Frankie seeks out multiple doctors' opinions, none of whom can help. He lashes out at Scrap, blaming him, then tries to bargain with God through prayer.

While in the hospital, Maggie looks forward to a visit from her family. They arrive only after first touring Disneyland and Universal Studios Hollywood. Accompanied by an attorney, their sole concern is to get Maggie's assets transferred to them. Disgusted, she orders them to leave and threatens to report their welfare fraud if they try to contact her again.

Maggie soon develops bedsores and undergoes an amputation for an infected leg. She then asks Frankie to help her die, declaring that she got everything she wanted out of life. A horrified Frankie refuses, so Maggie later bites her own tongue in an attempt to bleed to death. Knowing the fatherly affection Frankie has developed for Maggie, Frankie's priest warns him that he would never find himself again if he were to go through with Maggie's request. Frankie then sneaks into the hospital one night, unaware that Scrap is watching from the shadows. Just before administering a fatal injection of adrenaline, he tells Maggie the meaning of "mo chuisle": "my darling, and my blood." He never returns to the gym. Scrap's narration is revealed to be a letter to Frankie's daughter, informing her of her father's true character.

• Clint Eastwood as Frankie Dunn, a gruff but well-meaning elderly boxing trainer
• Hilary Swank as Mary Margaret "Maggie" Fitzgerald, a determined, aspiring boxer trained up by Frankie Dunn
• Morgan Freeman as Eddie "Scrap-Iron" Dupris, Dunn's gym assistant and former boxer
• Jay Baruchel as Dangerous Dillard Fighting Flippo Bam-Bam Barch or "Danger", a simpleton would-be boxer
• Mike Colter as Willie "Big Willie" Little, a boxer whom Dunn has trained for years
• Lucia Rijker as Billie "The Blue Bear" Osterman, a former prostitute and vicious boxer
• Brían F. O'Byrne as Father Horvak, the priest of the church which Dunn attends
• Anthony Mackie as Shawrelle Berry, an overzealous boxer and frequent tenant of Dunn's gym
• Margo Martindale as Earline Fitzgerald, Maggie's selfish mother
• Marcus Chait as J.D. Fitzgerald, Maggie's incarcerated brother
• Riki Lindhome as Mardell Fitzgerald, Maggie's welfare-cheating sister
• Michael Peña as Omar, a boxer and Shawrelle's best friend
• Benito Martinez as Billie's Manager
• Bruce MacVittie as Mickey Mack
• Grant L. Roberts as Billie's Cut Man

After being fired from the television series Family Law, Haggis wrote the script on spec, and it took four years to sell it.[6][7] The film was stuck in development hell for years before it was shot. Several studios rejected the project even when Eastwood signed on as actor and director. Even Warner Bros., Eastwood's longtime home base, would not agree to a $30 million budget. Eastwood persuaded Lakeshore Entertainment's Tom Rosenberg to put up half the budget (as well as handle foreign distribution), with Warner Bros. contributing the rest. Eastwood shot the film in less than 40 days between June and July 2004.[1][2] Filming took place in Los Angeles and film sets at Warner Bros. Studios.[2] The term 'Million Dollar Baby' was from the nose art of a World War II Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber. The titular phrase 'million dollar baby' was used as an insult during pre-fight publicity by Sonny Liston to Muhammad Ali, the latter of whom was an underdog at the time. Eastwood had his daughter Morgan Colette appear in a brief role as a girl who waves to Swank's character at a gas station.[8][9]

Eastwood had confidence in Swank's acting, but upon seeing Swank's small physique, he had concerns, "I just thought, 'Yeah, this gal would be great. If we can get her trained up. If we can get a little bit more bulk on her, to make her look like a fighter'...She was like a feather. But what happened is, she had this great work ethic."[10]

Consequently, to prepare for her role, Swank underwent extensive training in the ring and weight room, gaining 19 pounds of muscle, aided by professional trainer Grant L. Roberts. She trained for nearly five hours every day, winding up with a potentially life-threatening staphylococcus infection. She did not tell Eastwood about the infection because she thought it would be out of character for Maggie.[10]

The film was released on VHS and DVD on July 12, 2005, and all editions of the Region 1 DVD, except for the deluxe edition, came with a paperback copy of the book Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner. An HD DVD release was issued on April 18, 2006.[30] The Blu-ray Disc version was released on November 14, 2006.[31] It was the first Best Picture winner released on either high-definition optical disc format in the U.S.; it and Unforgiven (also starring Eastwood and Freeman) were the only ones released in the U.S. on HD DVD prior to the first one released in the U.S. on Blu-ray, Crash.[30][31] The film is also available online through video on demand and most major streaming platforms.

• Cinema of the United States
• List of American films of 2004
• List of boxing films

Bibliography

• Eliot, Marc (2009). American Rebel: The Life of Clint Eastwood. Harmony Books. ISBN 978-0-307-33688-0.
• Hughes, Howard (2009). Aim for the Heart. London: I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-84511-902-7.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Million Dollar Baby.

• Million Dollar Baby at IMDb
• Million Dollar Baby at the TCM Movie Database
• Million Dollar Baby at AllMovie
• Million Dollar Baby at Box Office Mojo
• Million Dollar Baby at Rotten Tomatoes
• Million Dollar Baby at Metacritic
• US News article: Million Dollar Maybe, A real-life version of Maggie Fitzgerald
• Another possible real-life Maggie Fitzgerald
• Million Dollar Baby at the Sports Movie Database