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Pastimes : Movie Reviews. U Rate It! Silver Screen Gem or Stinker!
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From: Glenn Petersen2/6/2005 2:52:04 PM
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I saw "Million Dollar Baby" on Friday. A magnificent, thoroughly depressing movie featuring powerful performances from Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank ("Maggie ``grew up knowing one thing: She was trash.'), and Morgan Freeman. It is probably Clint Eastwood's best effort. The plot twist at the end has generated an ethical controversy, though the movie is much larger than that one twist.

Last week, the Chicago Tribune published an essay by Lennard Davis, which I am not going to post on this thread because I don’t want to give away the plot twist. I have posted it on one of my dead threads:

Message 21022333

I deliberately did not read the article until after I had seen the movie. My initial reaction was to nod my head in agreement, but the more I think about it, the more I have come to believe that the article was cheap shot. The movie is much more nuanced than the article gave it credit for.

I spent fifteen minutes at a dinner party arguing about the article with people who had read the article but had not seen the movie.

As it turns out, I had missed an earlier article by Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun Times. As far as I am concerned, Ebert has nailed it for me:

Message 21022378

I do believe that these characters would do what they do in this film. It is entirely consistent with who they are and everything we have come to know about them. That is one reason the film is so good: It follows the characters all the way to the limit, and plays true to them.

I have always had an enormous amount of respect for Clint Eastwood. His career trajectory - from the "Dollar" movies to "Mystic River" and "Million Dollar Baby" - has to be almost unprecedented. One of the interesting twists here is that Eastwood, a man of the right, finds himself under siege from the right. Of course, Clint has always danced to his own tune.
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