3. Million Dollar Baby (2004) - Dir. Clint Eastwood
A film critic once said, that the reason Clint Eastwood films don't always get the awards recognition they deserve, is because he makes making excellent cinema seem like it isn't difficult. Which is something that is definitely true. The reason that he has had such success for so long behind the camera, is that Clint is a storyteller. He only makes films if he finds the story worth telling and Million Dollar Baby proves that this is a story that the world wanted to hear. The story of MDB seems like business as usual with the sporting genre. Hilary Swank's Maggie wants to be trained as a fighter to enable her to escape her dreary life and she want's Eastwood 's Frankie to coach her. He refuses, because he "doesn't train girls." Though, after being rejected by his protege with whom he thought had a real shot, he reluctantly agrees to coach Maggie. They develop a close bond, as Eastwood's relationship with his daughter is fractured and finds a paternal link with Maggie. She truly excels as a fighter under his tutelage and they begin looking for fights together. After working her way up the ladder at women's boxing, she earns a title fight. Eastwood warns her that it will be a dirty fight. This contains one of the most shocking moments I've seen in a long time in film history, I remember seeing it in a packed cinema on opening night where an entire audience of over three hundred people were in total silence. After the bell rings, the other fighter angry that she is losing to someone like Maggie, jabs her with a sucker punch to the back of the head, causing Maggie to fall and as she falls, cracks her head on the corner stool that Eastwood always puts out. She becomes a paraplegic, unable to walk for the rest of her life. Now, I remember seeing this and waiting for the moment where she'd overcome this adversity, as she'd overcome so much already, and go on to become a motivational speaker or a trainer herself. If only. Her quality of life deteriorates so much, that she begs Clint to euthanise her, so that she may die whilst still hearing the bells. Clint after much soul searching returns to the hospital, holds her hand and explains to her what her slogan, Mo Cuishle, ( which I won't spoil here ) that he picked for her literally means and she slips away quietly. That one moment absolutely floored everyone I know that has seen the film. The reason this totally destroys the audience is that we always expected her to overcome her adversity, rather than just submit to it. We hated to see someone we loved so much in such a terrible state of mind. And why did we never see that sucker punching villain of the piece get her comeuppance? Because that's not what life's like.