AT LAST: A REAL MOVIE

"Million Dollar Baby" is a movie for both Red and Blue. There is actually a real live story–and what a story--- without the usual PC feminism, Lefty attacks on Republicans, ridicule of the sweat class, and filthy sex scenes. Worse, it doesn't ridicule religion. It actually praises it. So naturally......

Million Dollar Baby, a movie that didn’t win the “prestigious” NY and LA Critics award and was nominated for five awards by the fake Golden Globes, will easily get the approval of the only people that count: us. The Left press, always afraid of being excluded from the Red State avalanche, have suddenly discovered this terrific, but very simple movie. A lean and rock hard story that you can liken to a wide receiver with two percent body fat who can still fool everybody at the age of 40 using simple moves that don’t even look like moves anymore. No computerized armies, no fake chases or fights, no rapid fire intercutting to disguise lack of story, Million Dollar Baby just lays it out there. The story seems to be as simple as a first grade reader until you try to retell it to your friends, it’s then you realize just how layered it really is and that you've just seen a hell of movie, a great story done to perfection by the perfect cast and a director who is the pro of pros. The first grade reader cast of Dick and Jane are played by Clint Eastwood and Hillary Swank (only sensational), their friend Fred is played by Morgan Freeman, and to top it off Million Dollar Baby is directed by Clint Eastwood, who also wrote most of the music.

Oh and by the way, Eastwood also produced.

I don’t know if this story will appeal to people under the age of 40, but I hope so. We are basically confronted by two old guys---Eastwood and Freeman--- who have been screwed more times than a twenty five year old street whore and, like that washed up street walker who hides her looks and her hurt in the deep shadows, they have become hard and indifferent to everything. Nobody is going to cheat them again and each has built up huge barriers to protect themselves from any more of Life. Nobody is going to screw with them again. Damage them again.

But in steps an over the hill thirty year old woman (Swank), faced with a nothing future, at the bottom of her barrel, with nothing left but a crazy idea and desperation looking for these two hard cases to help her.

As they always say, “It’s the Journey, not the Destination” but the real magic of this movie lies in the fact that Eastwood steers us to a complete surprise Destination without one extra reaction shot or stupid cutaway. Violence? You bet, this is a boxing movie in which the girl is the boxer, and she gets whacked in scenes with no music to hide the violence; all we hear are the slamming of fists on bodies. Bad language? What do you expect from people like this? The actual story was written by the late former boxer Jerry Boyd, and the movie is filled with dialogue that can only come from somebody who knows the underside of club boxing, stinking gyms, and the guys who still hang around long after their time has past. This is another movie that Left Hollywood refused to finance; supposedly they wanted the 75 year old Eastwood to do "Dirty Harry Kicks Medicare's Ass" or no money. Warners only gave Eastwood enough money for the domestic rights, so he got most of his money from a company called Lakeshore Entertainment Group that is located on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles across the street from Paramount. Their CEO is a guy named Tom Rosenberg, and the company is privately held , which means no stockholders. Look for Tom Rosenberg to be the next Hollywood “miracle millionaire.”

This truly is your basic “must see” movie---not a film and certainly not cinema—one that does everything a movie is supposed to do when they free themselves from trendy political statements and millionaire stars with their publicity teams. And Hillary Swank gives the best performance I've seen in years and years.

It's just a movie. Just go.