Movie review: " Million Dollar Baby"

As a boxing fan, as soon as I see anything relating to boxing, I take note.
Always have, always will.

In 1976, the movie"Rocky" got me started training , and trying to be like him. To have a dream, and to make things better for myself, and be a better person. Stallones movie inspired me so much and had such an effect on me and my life, that even now, I cant work it out.

Since that time, I've seen all the movies about boxing and to be honest, most have been average, and none have came close to touching me the way Stallones classic did - well that was until I saw Clint Eastwood's new movie "Million Dollar Baby"

I was out running and I saw it advertised on a billboard, and I thought it might be worth a look. Myself and my wife decided to go to our local theatre and after pigging out on popcorn and coke, we settled down for a quiet night at the movies.

With a love for boxing, and years of going to the old , famous gyms around the world, obviously, the first thing I took notice of was the movies location. It was your classic boxing gym and Eastwood created a realistic atmosphere, on screen, where you knew years of sweat and blood had been mopped up, and trampled on. The characters in the gym were also there. It dosent matter where you go, theres always these types of guys, in the gyms, and Eastwood had it down to a T.

For me that was enough entertainment, but the star of the film hadn't even made the first scene yet. Hilary Swank's character, was that of a 31 year old waitress, who was struggling to live and had nothing but a dream of winning the womens world title, and making things better for herself and her tragic family.

Clint Eastwood, not only directed the movie but starred alongside Swank as the old stubborn ex fighter turned trainer who only had two things left in his life. The hope that his long lost daughter answered his prayers and his letters, and the other is his gym.

Morgan Freeman is fantastic, as the old fighter who knows nothing else but boxing and is happiest while in the gym, and fights on through his life with the memories of his time in the ring.

The relationship between Freeman and Eastwood is at times funny, but also sad, and for me it was very emotional. I had seen these two characters many times in the gyms over the years, and strong and vivid memories came flooding back to me while sitting there with my wife. Ex- boxers who fought a lifetime spending big and saving little or pissing their purse up against a wall, and having a tab with the bookie or the loan sharks,and all the while fighting on too late, hoping for one more big payday that never came.

Swank, Eastwood, and Freeman are all equally as good as each other in this inspiring, but tragic, sometimes funny and always moving film that is so much more than a movie about boxing, that left me asking questions about the old guys I had met through the years. Men I thought I knew, but didn't really, men who had other sides to them and other stories to tell about their wives, sons daughters, grandkids. Everyone has loved ones, and with that comes overwhelming happiness, and sometimes sadness. Everyone has a story to tell.

"Million Dollar Baby" hit me with a left hook to the head, and knocked me down with a body shot that had me in pain long after the movie had finished.