5. Million Dollar Baby
Arguably Clint Eastwood's best film, and certainly his most affecting, Million Dollar Baby rightfully won big at the Oscars, earning Best Picture for that year. In Million Dollar Baby, veteran boxing trainer Frankie Dunn reluctantly agrees to train Maggie Fitzgerald, a waiter from Tennessee with a tortured family life. She turns out to have a knack for it and embarks on a long undefeated streak. On one particular fight, a dirty shot ends up paralyzing Maggie, leaving her permanently bedridden. After developing bedsores and undergoing an amputation, Maggie urges Frankie to help her commit suicide and after much soul-searching, he does. The film ends with Frankie's best friend narrating a letter to Frankie's daughter, telling how after the suicide, he never saw Frankie again. The final shot of the movie shows Frankie eating in a restaurant that he and Maggie had eaten at earlier in the film. Almost unbearably depressing, there's very little to take comfort in the film at all. The ending does however offer a few positives. Before dying, Maggie says that because of the cheers and acceptance of the crowds at her fights, she has accomplished what she had set out to do and that she wants to go out on top. The last shot hints that Frankie fulfilled an earlier promise to Maggie as he agreed earlier in the film to buy the restaurant and retire there. Its not much to go on, but there's still a glimmer of optimism in Million Dollar Baby that makes it a bit uplifting.