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 #49: Rocky (1976)

by Chris Marshall:

For pretty much my entire life, I assumed that I had seen Rocky. It hardly seems possible that anybody could have not seen it. But as I watched it, I came to realize that so much of it appeared totally unfamiliar. So much so that, in my movie journal, I changed it from “yes” to “no” under my Seen Before? column.

I knew the final scene, of course. The fight with Apollo Creed I’ve seen many times before, but even though I knew exactly what would happen, it was still brilliantly done. Not brilliantly done on a boxing level, but on an emotional level, it was perfect.

For as great as this movie is, though, the actual boxing scenes are not very convincing. I can maybe believe that Rocky, who is a club fighter, after all, would completely eschew any attempts at defense. But Apollo Creed, who is supposedly the best boxer in the world? Inconceivable. His behavior outside the ring might have been based on Muhammad Ali, but inside the ring, he couldn’t be more different. If he learned how to block, maybe Ivan Drago wouldn’t have killed him a few years later.