If I had to choose between sports and movies, I would choose both. I would say these two activities are among my top 5 favorite things to do in life. That's why I decided to start a series of sports movies which you must watch. I will try to be as objective as possible with my reviews so that I don't waste your time both reading my articles and watching the movies.

Let's start the series with a Clint Eastwood classic Million Dollar Baby. I consider this to be one of the best sports movies ever created. From sports to life drama, it covers everything perfectly. Also, the acting is superb.

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Main Facts

  • Million Dollar Baby won 4 Oscars, including the best actress (Hilary Swank) and best motion picture of the year. Clint Eastwood, who was 74 at the time, became the oldest director to ever win Oscar for directing.
  • Ranked 202 in IMDB Top 250 list.
  • Only second boxing movie (Rocky is the first one) to this day to win Oscar as the best movie of the year.
  • Lucia Rijker, the great champion, became Hilary Swank's trainer in real life.

The Plot

Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) decides to become a boxer and joins Frankie Dunn's (Clint Eastwood) gym. Dunn refuses to train Maggie as he thinks that she is too old to become a pro. He is probably right, but Maggie persuades him anyway.

Meanwhile, Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris (Morgan Freeman) narrates the movie. That's good enough already, right?

Maggie Fitzgerald goes on to beat some strong women and earns herself one million dollar fight in Las Vegas against some evil ex-prostitute. Of course, when things are going too good, shit starts to happen. The evil opponent illegally hits Maggie, and she falls straight on the corner stool. Maggie breaks her neck. As most of the gamers would say "gg".

If you expect that Maggie Fitzgerald fought her way back up to the top, you are wrong. Maggie suffers more and more each day and the movie doesn't end well for her. Let's just say; she doesn't move far from the bed.

Morgan Freeman continues to narrate the movie as Frankie Dunn is doing it all to make Maggie's misery at least a little less heartbreaking. This movie is the definition of sports drama movie, so don't expect any laughs or easy time watching it. You will most likely end up crying and picking up your shattered heart after the final scene. I did. And I am not ashamed.

My Thoughts

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  1. We only remember the winners. Nobody cares about the losers. We love to talk about beautiful comeback stories. We don't touch those heartbreaking topics. If you read the news and the most popular stories in sports, you would only find glamor and joy of winning. However, life is sometimes more difficult. Million Dollar Baby is a movie about people who suffered big time and could never recover. 
  2. So often you can hear people talking about the fact that athletes earn too much money. However, taking boxing for instance. We literally put two people in the cage and watch them try to kill each other. Even if athletes avoid fatal injuries, they still sacrifice their health for people who risk nothing. How stupid would it be for them to risk it all for pennies? We create the demand. We pay. It's fair and square.
  3. Euthanasia should be legal.
  4. One injury can destroy the entire life, and even the greatest athletes are not immune to that. I know we all love watching professional sports, but something should be done to prevent athletes from destroying their bodies before it's too late.
  5. Clint Eastwood must be one of the biggest talents that ever worked in Hollywood, both acting and directing-wise. 
  6. Life can be too hard to handle when you lose even the last glimpse of hope to achieve your dreams. So it's better to set your goals so that no one, even the broken neck, could destroy them. Easier said than done, though.
  7. People only want to see results. No one cares about practice. You can ask Allen Iverson if you don't believe me. But seriously, people only care about results. If you don't provide the results, people forget you in no time. There is always a great boxer/swimmer/runner/footballer to love, so if you cannot be the one, you have to go. 
  8. The more money you have, the harder it gets to see who truly care about you and who are only after your money. That applies to Scorum as well, just replace money with SP.