Million Dollar Baby directed by Clint Eastwood, is a film exploring how ones success is not guaranteed by victory. Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood) struggles to grasp the concept of training an aspiring boxer Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) as he is going through hardships which are setting him back. Clint Eastwood implements the use of cinematography techniques to symbolically convey the true meaning of success where winning is not a measurement, instead the hard work you put in and risking your shot to achieve your dreams.
Through viewing Million Dollar Baby, it was evident that Eastwood incorporated the use of both diegetic and non-diegetic sounds to symbolically convey the nature of accomplishment. Frankie enters the room where Maggie is
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Frankie spots Maggie training alone, watching from a distance where his silhouette is hidden and the only source of light was projected on the brick wall behind Maggie. (Million Dollar Baby 00:31:57) Through the use of darkness, the audience is able to relate as it symbolically conveys one individual’s character and how they are protecting themselves by placing barriers and walls. Once Frankie steps out into the light and corrects Maggie’s technique, the real character is revealed. Frankie gives Maggie an ultimatum, where he is will agree to train her under strict conditions and find her a manager, or ignore her as he has been doing. (Million Dollar Baby 00:33:50) This scene also further reinforces the fact that Frankie reveals his true character when there is no one around, and agrees to help Maggie to get a step closer to her dreams. The audience is able to connect with Frankie’s character as everyday civilians act a certain way around certain environments and where different variables may influence them, however when the individuals are alone, their true nature is exposed. The starting point of Maggie’s boxing career was solidified by a handshake with Frankie. (Million Dollar Baby 00:35:00) Through exploring this scene, the audience is able to associate with this act as it signifies the hard work and dedication Maggie has put in, and how she is given a chance to succeed when everyone else thought
The movie begins with self-centered, materialistic Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise), learning the death of his father. To settle his dad’s estate, he and his business partner/girlfriend, Susanna (Valeria Golino) travel to his home town Cincinnati. While he was hoping to inherit all of his dad’s estate, all he got was a car and a collection of rosebushes that he simply has no use for. The remaining $3 million fortune was put into a trust for an unnamed beneficiary. Charlie demands to know the identity of the beneficiary and finds out that it is a mental hospital where his long-lost autistic brother, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman) resides with a caretaker, Dr. Bruner (Gerald R. Molen).
The motion picture Belly explores the ghetto and the characters that live in this dark and obscure world of violence and criminal behavior. Tommy or "Bunz", and Sincere, who both live in New York, have differing views of criminal life. Bunz lives a mixed up, drug-run lifestyle, while Sincere aspires to be a law-abiding family man. To help the audience get the full effect of evilness portrayed by the character, the scenes are very dark and gloomy. There are, however, lighter scenes in which the good heart of one man is represented. The lighting in Belly helps with the characterization within the movie. One character is shown as a dark figure, and one as an almost holy figure, plus disillusionment is brought out nicely through lighting effects.
She went to college after high school and didn’t return home after she graduated. She got married to a Muslim man and she became so concerned with her family’s history. When she arrived, she became so concerned with taking pictures of the farmhouse she grew up in a soon as she got their she didn’t even greet her mother and sister Maggie right away. When she entered the home she immediately began to scan the room for things that she felt were good enough to go into her apartment in the city, she also wanted included things that she felt were good enough to impress her friends and to show her where they are from. When she reached the home, she mentioned a few things that stood out to her which included a butter churn and 2 quilts. The two quilts in particular stuck out to her because the two were hand sew by her grandmothers and aunt , along with her mother. Maggie her sister states, “She can have them, Mama,” She said, like somebody used to never winning anything, or having anything reserved for her. “I can member’ Grandma Dee without the quilts’” (Walker). Maggie her younger sister who still lived at home with her family let her sister know she could have them simply because she knew that it wasn’t the quilts that were going to make her remember she’s remembers the years they spent together unlike her sister who was never really around the house as much as Maggie and this was giving Maggie as sense of pride
Have you ever seen the Disney movie Cinderella? Cinderella was always jealous of her step sisters always being up lifted, while she was always degraded by her step mother however, at the end everything changed for Cinderella just as it did for Maggie. There are a numerous of themes throughout the story “Everyday Use”. Race is showed when Dee leaves home and comes back embracing her African American cultural. Family also plays a major role in “Everyday Use”. In “Everyday Use” Maggie’s characterization presents her as ignorant; however, a closer look reveals Maggie ignorance is not a representative of her potential but, rather her mother’s bias.
The movie that will be examined in this critical film review is Million Dollar Baby. Million Dollar Baby was set back in time with a girl wanting to fit but the trainer did not want to train her. In the beginning of the movie, Frankie the trainer did not want to teach her how to fight because he does not train girls. As the movie progresses, Eddie “scrap”, a back in the day amazing fighter was able to convince Frankie to take Maggie and train her to be the best. When Frankie starts to train Maggie, one can tell that there is a father/daughter relationship between the two of them all the way up until the end of the movie. Both Frankie and Maggie have negative pasts; Frankie’s past being his daughter wanting nothing to do with him, and Maggie’s
Everyday Use ends with Dee leaving, not with the quilts, thus making room for the new bond between Mama and Maggie. Dee may believe that she has won in some way because she is the educated sister who appreciates her heritage, but the reader sees it is in fact Maggie who has become victorious by having her way of life validated by Mama’s support and Dee’s envy. Maggie’s system of values is redeemed by creating a new relationship, with herself, in which she is no longer silenced and can truly appreciate the beauty of her home even in its everyday use. While there is little growth seen from the experience on Dee’s side, we know that Maggie is forever changed, giving her more power than she ever had. There is still and will always be a struggle between her and her sister, but Maggie now knows she does not need redemption from Dee, nor anyone else, because it is she who carries the importance of the past into the future.
When Maggie finally smiles ‘a real smile’ at the end of the story as she and her mother watch Dee’s car disappear in a cloud of dust, it is because she knows her ‘mother holy recognition of the scarred daughter’s sacred status as quilter is the best gift if a hard-pressed womankind to the fragmented goddess of the present.’ (Piedmont-Marton)
When we meet our narrator, the mother of Maggie and Dee, she is waiting in the yard with Maggie for Dee to visit. The mother takes simple pleasure in such a pleasant place where, "anyone can come back and look up at the elm tree and wait for the breezes that never come inside the house." (Walker 383) This is her basic attitude, the simple everyday pleasures that have nothing to do with great ideas, cultural heritage or family or racial histories. She later reveals to us that she is even more the rough rural woman since she, "can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man." (Walker 383) Hardly a woman one would expect to have much patience with hanging historical quilts on a wall. Daughter Maggie is very much the opposite of her older sister, Dee. Maggie is portrayed as knowing "she is not bright." (Walker 384)
In this story, Maggie is a lot like her mother. They both are uneducated, loving, caring, and allow Dee to run over them. Maggie has been through more things than her mother has though, because of the incident that happened. Maggie has scars like Emily, except Maggie’s scars are from a house fire (319). The house fire has impacted Maggie’s life tremendously, since she is very self-conscious and shy. Walker stated that Maggie is “ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs (318). The mother is protective of Maggie and will be there for her whenever she needs her too. Even though her mother knows all her struggles, she still supports her and pushes her to be better. I think that is one reason she pushes her to marry John Thomas, because she wants her to become her own person and to be strong (319). The mother of “Everyday Use” is opposite from the mother in “I Stand Here Ironing”, because she is there for her children no matter what their financial status
The condescending attitude and request from Dee leads Maggie to feel ashamed of her life for a moment and she nearly gives the heirlooms away. “She can have them, Mama,” were the words of...
As time passes, Maggie’s persistence and Eddie’s pushiness finally change Frankie’s mind. This is when the true story begins. Maggie’s determination and strong will to fulfill her dream, combined with Frankie’s excellent training skills, launch both of them into the professional boxing orbit where they gloriously win battle after battle. Although the story seems like a big cliché, in truth, the world of Million Dollar Baby involves much more than boxing and success. Clint Eastwood treats such subject matters as love, fear, intricate relationships, and even religion.... ...
Before all this, Maggie had been working in a factory, “where they made collars and cuffs” (Crane 967). This life is hard. Factories of the time had horrible working conditions, and left little chance for a woman to advance. Considering the slums that Maggie grew up in, though, this was one of the best options she could have. When Pete comes into her life, though, she dreams that something better has fallen for her....
Maggie lives with a poor and dysfunctional family and a hopeless future with only the small possibility of change. The environment and setting she grows up in do not support anything more than a dull, dreary and pathetic future for her. An old woman asks Maggie's brother Jimmy: "Eh, Gawd, child, what is it this time? Is yer fader beatin yer mudder, or yer mudder beatin yer fader? (Maggie, 10)" while he runs to Maggie's apartment one night. The lack of love and support of her family hinders Maggie's ability to live a happy and fulfilling life. Without knowing that someone loves her no matter what she does or how she acts Maggie may feel desperate enough to change her situation by any means she can, and without any useful guidance. Even without any positive influences Maggie grows up different from the low-life's living with and around her. Crane explains Maggie's uniqueness in the passage "None of the dirt of Rum Alley seemed to be in her veins. The philosophers up-stairs, down-stairs and on the same floor, puzzled over it" (Maggie 16). Maggie's uniqueness gives her the chance to improve her life, but only a slim chance. Even though Maggie differs from the people around her they remain sleazy, making it harder for her to change her life because she must go outside of her community for help.
Gracie’s choice tells the the story of a young teen who had to fight for the custody of her four younger siblings. Gracie faces a legal system that ignores the obvious evidence that she is capable of raising her younger siblings but because of her age the system automatically tells her no. From the moment I watched this movie on Lifetime it inspired my life tremendously. This movie doesn’t relate to me but it relates to people who have an importance in my life. Gracie’s Choice displays struggle, independence, and determination. It is a prime example as to what it means to growing up before your time.
...rs. Johnson drags Maggie into the room because she realized that she cannot always get what she wants every time she demands for it.