“Million Dollar Baby”: A Movie About Heart.

“Sometimes you get so down, inspiration comes from anywhere. You make decisions, take action, and in the long run you win. You discover your heart.” –Dr. Joe de Beauchamp.

“Boxing is an unnatural act,” whispered Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood) cut man and trainer. “Understand me kid. You want to move to the left, you don’t step left, and you push off on the right toe, like this. To move to the right, you use the left toe, like this, see?” The old man drilled glances through your eyes to the back of your head. “Instead of running from the pain, which is the natural thing in life, in boxing you step into it, getting me? So now, once you’ve made the decision to be a fighter, now you gotta know how to fight, because no matter how tough you are, my friend, these dudes…knock you out.” Frankie’s voice pierced. It boomed up harsh in the gym. It moved around the ring like the old tune “Body and Soul” right down to the bones. His voice growled down deep as a grizzly bear. The whisper moved sideways on you, then curled back on itself, as if it were smoke from a dying fire. Images floated out, the old man painted pictures, gave you dreams and heart. It fell to flesh and bones with powerful magic. Frankie loved warriors.

The Hit Pit worked fighters in heat and steam. Sweat poured off everyone swaying like cobras spitting poison. Frankie wrinkled up his weathered face in a map under his shock of white hair. Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) lost everything and entered boxing: a lame dog, a drunken father, a fat family, a trailer home, and even hope. Two braids of deep auburn hair hung down behind each ear. Her agate eyes sparkled and her white smile flashed and reminded Frankie of his lost daughter.

“Boss, will you train me?”

“Girlie, tough ain’t enough.”

He named her Machushla (mo-cuish-le –Gaelic for my darling, my blood). She whacked punch mitts, speed bags; big bags, jumped roped, and slipped punches for Frankie. They found each other, stuck, moved, and never took a backward step.

“Protect yourself at all times.”

Her Irish skin reminded him of his lost daughter, the lost times. He found heart and she found her father again. They worked the ring together. Went on a circuit around the world, and won with a string of KO’s. The Irish and the press chanted at every fight: Machushla. They proclaimed Maggie Machushla Day in Dublin on the first global shot and then went for the title.

Maggie fought for a million dollar purse. The title shot came against the former Russian prostitute, Blue Bear. Bear head butted, splintered elbows and palmed to break noses. Maggie drove ice pick punches to the sciatic nerve, shooting daggers down Blue’s legs. Wobbly, Bear dropped to an eight count, and Maggie turned. Bear rabbit punched her from behind. Maggie fell cracking her neck, paralyzed forever.

Frankie Dunn and Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris (Morgan Freeman) hears Maggie say the word “frozen,” and realize her dream has ended. Frozen life engulfed her. Frankie recognizes something in Maggie, and they bond in a way much deeper than trainer and boxer. From that moment, it’s clear these two go the distance with each other. Maggie asks for help, needs to keep her heart and courage, and asks for help.

Frankie squinted against the slanting sunlight climbing the stairs to the church. He glazed up at the agonized Mother and tortured Jesus and the suffering saints. Burning incense and candles filled the cathedral. His holy place and solace mirrored questions for him. Torn to lose another daughter, Frankie asks his priest about pulling the plug. The priest ponders the sin. The Father says, “If you do this thing, you’ll be lost, somewhere so deep you will never find yourself.”

Frankie used a syringe of adrenaline chloride to stop her heart. Fighters use this solution for crushed knuckles and fractured metacarpals to keep them in the game. She smiled like an angel in deep peace. Frankie choked back a howl. His shoes in his hand, without his soul, he moved dry eyed as a burning leaf. Both overcame every hazard and peril, finished strong in the end. Leaders make decisions, changing fate forever.

Haggis adapted the story from Rope Burns: Stories From the Corner, a 2000 book by Jerry Boyd, a seventy-year-old fight manager who wrote it as “F.X. Toole.” Clint Eastwood (Mystic River) directs Million Dollar Baby with great respect for the slow miracles that draw very different people together in ties that touch the heart and the soul. Although both Girlfight and Against the Ropes have also dealt with boxing, this gritty film will speak to followers of the sport with its telling details of what goes on inside and outside the ring. This added value comes through the voice-over narration provided by Scraps.

It is a rich and challenging motion picture that both affirms life and emphasizes its fragility. Eastwood touches our hearts and energizes our minds. Million Dollar Baby is refreshingly free of the kind of tear-wringing melodrama that has become seemingly obligatory for this kind of story.

Joseph de Beauchamp can be reached at joedebo@wfnn.info