The Oscar Project #77: Million Dollar Baby (2004)

by Chris Marshall:

For years I had virtually no interest in seeing Million Dollar Baby, and I don’t know why. It’s (kind of) a boxing movie, it has Clint Eastwood in it, and it was almost universally beloved by critics. But for whatever reason, I could just never summon up enough enthusiasm to watch it.

That was a mistake. Like Unforgiven before it, Clint Eastwood again delivered a magnificent film, buoyed by the performances of its three stars: Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, and most importantly, Hilary Swank. Swank was only five years removed from her breakout performance in Boys Don’t Cry, for which she won Best Actress. This time, as the up and coming boxer Maggie Fitzgerald, she would win it again. Freeman, for his role as retired boxer Scrap Iron Dupris, finally won his first Academy Award.

So yeah, I really liked this movie, even though a great deal of its last act has been spoiled for me many times over. I won’t reveal it here, except to say that a sense of dread hung over me the entire time I was watching. I knew it was going to happen, but I didn’t know when, so every fight was tinged with anxiety.

The Oscar Project #65: Unforgiven (1992)

by Chris Marshall:

Unforgiven is a work of genius, one of those rare films where I felt like I was experiencing greatness while I was watching it. I expected it to be good, but I was completely taken off guard by how much I loved it. It was nearly perfect.

Clint Eastwood is one of the immortal legends of American cinema, and his very presence in a film means something. That’s not to say that every one of his movies is good; that’s far from the truth. But particularly in the latter part of his career, his face carries such a heavy symbolic weight that he hardly needs to say anything at all. Of course, Eastwood is typically at his best when he’s silent.

Eastwood, as the “reformed” outlaw William Munny, has plenty of lines in Unforgiven, but he delivers them in a way that lets us know that he never says anything without contemplating it deeply. He has acquired a deep wisdom, both from his worst days and from his best days. But he knows he will never truly be a good man, for he has committed unspeakable atrocities, sins that he can never atone for.

The Oscar Project #62: Driving Miss Daisy (1989)

by Chris Marshall:

I often complain about the tendency of actors playing Southerners to "over-Southern," but it really hasn't been that big of a problem so far during The Oscar Project. Driving Miss Daisy, on the other hand, runs with every possible opportunity to do it. I don't expect great acting out of Dan Aykroyd, but it's particularly off-putting when an actual Southerner, namely Morgan Freeman, does it.

That being said, Freeman did a superb acting job in spite of the minstrel show voice he adopted. As did Jessica Tandy, for that matter. I imagine that somebody less attuned to the nuances of a Southern accent would assume they were pitch-perfect in their roles.

Tandy, playing the role of an elderly Jewish woman in Atlanta in the mid-20th century, begins the film in her late 60s. She is widowed but still cares for herself, although she does have plenty of help from her black (her race is important) housekeeper. After having an accident while backing out of her driveway, her son (Dan Aykroyd) decides she needs a chauffeur. He hires a man named Hoke (Morgan Freeman) and tells him that no matter how difficult his mother is, he should carry on. She has no power to fire him, so there's no need for him to fear for his job. His goal is to make her accept him.