History Film / MillionDollarBaby

The film won four UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s, including [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestPicture Best Picture]], [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestDirecting Best Director]] (Eastwood), [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestActressInALeadingRole Best Actress]] (Swank), and [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestActorInASupportingRole Best Supporting Actor]] (Freeman). Eastwood and Swank also won UsefulNotes/{{Golden Globe|Award}}s for Best Director and Actress, respectively.

A 2004 American sports drama film directed by Creator/ClintEastwood, who also stars along with Creator/HilarySwank and Creator/MorganFreeman. Paul Haggis adapted the screenplay from the 2000 short-story collection ''Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner'' by F.X. Toole.[[note]]the PenName of real-life boxing trainer Jerry Boyd[[/note]]

Noted for its strong characters and interesting storyline, the film won four UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s, including Best Picture, Best Director (Eastwood), Best Actress (Swank), and Best Supporting Actor (Freeman). Eastwood and Swank also won UsefulNotes/{{Golden Globe|Award}}s for Best Director and Actress respectively.

* ArtisticLicenseSports: During the title bout, the Blue Bear commits several fouls that would result in immediate automatic disqualification in a real boxing match, but only receives warnings and/or point deductions for them.

** Inverted, in the end, Maggie disowns her family after they demand the house and her with no sympathy towards her injuries.

*** [[spoiler:When Maggie is paralyzed, her family visits her in the nursing home, ''after'' spending a week at Disneyworld and Universal Studios, and tries to get Maggie to sign over all her money to them. This apparently crosses a line, as Maggie tells them that not only are they not getting one dime, if they or their lawyer ever speak to her again she'll sell the house out from under them.]]

* UngratefulBastard: Maggie's mother and sister, who object to her buying a ''house'' for them for fear of losing their welfare and instead insist on money.

* NoodleIncident: Something happened between Frankie and his daughter that put a serious strain on their relationship to the point to where Frankie's daughter does not want anything to do with him.

* CorruptHick: Margaret "Maggie" Fitzgerald's family hail from the Ozarks, care little about Maggie's well-being, and will cheerfully cross the MoralEventHorizon just to get her money. Maggie herself is a DefectorFromDecadence.

* WorstAid: [[spoiler:Frankie realizes how sub-par the quality of care is at the hospital Maggie goes to after losing the title match and breaking her spine and arranges to have her moved to a better one.]]

** [[spoiler: And Maggie becomes a quadraplegic due to a punch in the ring.]]

The first portion of the movie deals with Maggie trying to get Frankie Dunn (Eastwood), who runs the Hit Pit gym, to train her into becoming a credible boxer. She eventually succeeds and is able to get Frankie and Eddie Dupris (Freeman), another trainer and former boxer, to warm up to her.

[[quoteright:267:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/million_dollar_baby_3607.jpg]]

A 2004 film directed by Creator/ClintEastwood.

Margaret Fitzgerald (Creator/HilarySwank) is a down-and-out waitress striving for a better life. So she does what all down-and-out waitress do to help herself out - she learns how to box. The first portion of the movie deals with Margaret training herself at the Hit Pit trying to get Frankie Dunn (Creator/ClintEastwood) to train her into becoming a credible boxer. She eventually succeeds and is able to get Frankie and another trainer and former boxer Eddie Dupris (Creator/MorganFreeman) to warm up to her.

After a good deal of training she enters into the world of professional women's boxing and becomes a remarkable fighter. Eventually the movie takes a turn for the worse.

Noted for its strong characters and interesting storyline, the film won four Oscars.

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Downplayed: It's not shown that Billie the Blue Bear was disqualified, but the referee was getting annoyed with her constant breaking of the rules, and even threatened to disqualify her once. Billie was probably disqualified immediately once the doctors realized the injuries she had inflicted on Maggie after ''intentionally punching her between rounds''. Plus, since Maggie died as a result of her actions, Billie might not be in the fighting business much longer...]]

* IHaveNoSon: Inverted, in the end, Maggie disowns her family after they demand the house and her with no sympathy towards her injuries.

%%* ParentalSubstitute: Frankie, for Maggie.

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Maggie becomes absolutely miserable due to becoming a paraplegic and asks Frankie to kill her. He grants her wish and never returns to the gym again.]]

* RetiredBadass:
** Eddie, who in spite of his age and being blind in one eye, knocks out the cocky, obnoxious Shawrelle with one punch.
** Scrap, despite his old age and blindness in one eye, still knocks out a much younger Shawrelle Berry.

%%* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Frankie.

* NiceGirl: Maggie’s pleasant and unendingly friendly demeanor is what makes her fate even mor heartbreaking.

* ThereAreNoTherapists: [[spoiler:Towards the end, Maggie becomes so despondent that she attempts suicide by biting her tongue and begs Frankie to pull the plug on her. The hospital's first reaction is to keep her sedated 24/7 so she can't attempt suicide--instead of getting her the psychiatric help that she obviously needs.]]

* BadassGrandpa: Eddie, who in spite of his age and being blind in one eye, knocks out the cocky, obnoxious Shawrelle with one punch.

* RetiredBadass: Scrap, despite his old age and blindness in one eye, still knocks out a much younger Shawrelle Berry.

* BadassGrandpa: Eddie, who in spite of his age and one eye, knocks out the cocky, obnoxious Shawrelle with one punch.

->''"Working the bag, boss."''

* IHaveNoSon: Inverted, in the end, Maggie disowns her family after they demand the house and her with no sympathy towards her injuries.

%%* RetiredBadass: Eddie's one, as Shawrelle finds out.

* TheUnreveal: We never learn ''what'', exactly, Frankie did that drove his daughter away. Apparently it was so bad that [[TheAtoner he's made a point of attending Mass nearly every day for 23 years straight]].
* WhamLine: [[spoiler:When Maggie asks Franie to let her die.]]

%%* CoolOldGuy: Creator/ClintEastwood and Creator/MorganFreeman. Need I say more?* CorruptHick: Margaret "Maggie" Fitzgerald's family, who hail from the Ozarks. They care little about Maggie's well-being, and will cheerfully cross the MoralEventHorizon just to get her money. Maggie herself is a DefectorFromDecadence.

* DisappearedDad: Maggie's father died long before she started her boxing career.

%%* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler:One of these days, that East German boxer is going to kill someone.]] For more, see above for on ChekhovsGun.

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Downplayed: It's not shown that Billie the Blue Bear was disqualified, but the referee was getting annoyed with her constant breaking of the rules, and even threatened to disqualify her once. Bille was probably disqualified immediately once the doctors realized the injuries she had inflicted on Maggie after ''intentionally punching her between rounds''. Plus, since Maggie died as a result of her actions, Billie might not be in the fighting business much longer...]]

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Frankie himself laughs at Barch mocking of Shawrelle after Maggie had told Shawrelle off.

* {{Oireland}}: Invoked. Clint's character tries to rediscover his Irish roots by attending Catholic mass without understanding the substance of the religion, learning Gaelic reading Creator/WilliamButlerYeats (who mostly wrote in English), and giving Maggie an Irish boxing gimmick.

* OscarBait: Due to ending, three huge stars as the main characters, and the usual triumph over adversity [[spoiler:turning into even [[FromBadToWorse more adversity]]]], this was a shoo-in.

* RetiredBadass: Scrap is shown to be the case where despite his old age and blindness in one eye, he still knocks out a much younger Shawrelle Berry.

* SmallNameBigEgo: Shawrelle Berry comes off as a arrogant loud mouth through out most the movie but considering Maggie's dig at his poor performance in his last fight(which she only said because he was bothering her) and the fact that the elder, blinded in one-eye Scrap easily knocks him out (granted Scarp was implied to be no slouch in his prime) suggest Berry is not nearly as good of a boxer as his arrogance would suggest.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler:It wasn't clear if Billie was punished for permanently injuring Maggie. Granted considering her cheap shot is what lead to Maggie's paralysis, its safe to assume Billie was probably punished severely for what she did. Not the least being losing her boxing license. ]]

* {{Jerkass}}: Maggie's family, especially her mother, shows ''astounding'' levels of [[PerfectlyCromulentWord dickitude]], with a generous helping of hypocrisy.
** Her mother berates her for taking up boxing even though she's good at it and it's making her rich, insisting it's not something a lady should do. She herself is on welfare and doing nothing to improve her situation.
** When she starts winning big purses, Maggie buys her mother a house. And what happens next? She berates Maggie for not giving her cash instead. If she's a homeowner, you see, she won't qualify for welfare anymore and she doesn't want to work. [[spoiler:Toward the end, we find out she never signed the ownership transfer paperwork even though she's living in the house, and it's a major plot point that Maggie still owns the house.]]
** [[spoiler:When Maggie is paralyzed, her family visits her in the nursing home, ''after'' spending a week at Disneyworld and Universal Studios, and tries to get Maggie to sign over all her money to them. This apparently crosses a line, as Maggie tells them that not only are they not getting one dime, if they or their lawyer ever speak to her again she'll sell the house out from under them.]]
*** Shawrelle Berry is another example. He runs his mouth off at Maggie and bullies Dangerous Dillard through out the movie

* NoodleIncident: Something happened between Frankie and his daughter that put a serious strain on their relationship to the point to where Frankie's daughter does not want anything to do with him.

* UngratefulBastard: Maggie's mother and sister, who object to her buying a ''house'' for them for fear of losing their welfare and instead insist on money.

* UsefulNotes/AcademyAward: Four, in fact. Creator/ClintEastwood's second Best Director, Hilary Swank's second Best Actress, Morgan Freeman for Best Supporting Actor and Best Picture of 2004.

* BraidsOfAction: Maggie and most of the other female boxers wear their hair in braids, presumably because it/s practical.

* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: [[spoiler:When Frankie talks to Maggie's mom about how it would not be a good idea to see Maggie yet since they have been spending all week at Universal Orlando instead of actually visting her, the mom goes on about how "she would have taken Maggie there if she could have and its not like Maggie is going anywhere". Tellingly her own Lawyer looks at her with amazement at both her stupidity and insensitive attitude.]]

* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: When Frankie talks to Maggie's mom about how it would not be a good idea to see Maggie yet since they have been spending all week at Universal Orlando instead of actually visting her, the mom goes on about how "she would have taken Maggie there if she could have and its not like Maggie is going anywhere". Tellingly her own Lawyer looks at her with amazement at both her stupidity and insensitive attitude.

* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: When Frankie talks to Maggie's mom about how it would not be a good idea to see Maggie yet since they have been spending all week at Universal Orlando instead of actually visting her, the mom goes on about how "she would have taken Maggie there if she could have and its not like Maggie is going anywhere". Tellingly her Lawyer looks at her with amazement at both her stupidity and insensitive attitude.