O/T "Million Dollar Baby"

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Posted By: Julie

Saw it yesterday afternoon. Thought it was even better than "Mystic River." There is a good deal of (female) boxing action, and we're told Swank trained 6 months for the part. I was wondering what any of the boxing lovers on the Forum thought of the boxing in the movie? I found it more convincing than "Rocky," in which the oft repeated formula was to have the guy on the verge of falling to the canvas and then staging a tremendous comeback. Haven't seen many of those tremendous combacks in real life, or unexpected knockouts, by the (till then) losing boxer.

Also: In her last fight, the terrible blow seemed to me to be delivere4d after the bell for end-of-round sounded.
Since the dirty boxer had already been warned that "anymore of that, and you'll be disqualified," why didn't Maggie win the fight by default?

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Posted By: Julie

''''''''

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Have not seen the movie.
In real life boxing, fights are called too early once a boxer gets hurt to make dramatic movie scenes.

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Posted By: Jay Miller

Julie--I saw the movie and loved it. I think the reason she did not win the title may be that a title cannot change hands on a disqualification(I think). She could have won the fight but not the title. Great movie, and much more than a female version of Rocky.

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Posted By: Julie

" a title cannot change hands on a disqualification" Now I know. I hope you didn't think I was comparing the movie to Rockey--except by contrast in the way the actual boxing was portrayed. (Rocky is a much underrated movie, by the way. Any movie that has a pair of turtles named "cuff" and "link" in it can't be all bad!)

It's obvious that Eastwood is a masterful director. He seems to pull the desired character and personality out of everyone, every time they open their mouths. ALL the characters remind me of Di Niro in the '70s, when he could do anything, and did.

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Posted By: dennis

roy jones jr. lost his light heavyweight title by disqualification in 1997(?)for knocking out his opponent after the bell rang. i think it's in pro wrestling a title can not change hands due to a disqualification!!!

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Posted By: davidcycleback

In pro boxing, the title belongs solely to the defending champion if there is a draw. You have to beat the defender to take the title. Being disqualified during the fight is the same as losing.

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Posted By: Julie

back to square one...

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Posted By: E.Angyal

If you watched the very last scene where they pan around the office, you will clearly see the title belt sitting on the desk (if you look for it). I think the whole moral of the story was at that point the title belt took second stage to everything else that had occurred.

Eric

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Posted By: Julie

I guess I thought she had already won some lesser title.
Come to think of it, it was a pretty fancy belt...

Not that her mother was especially worth communicating with, but I would have expected, when she said "You lost," if she hadn't lost, some sort of mild reproof, like, "Well, no, I didn't lose."

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Posted By: Gary B.

I was pretty confused by what actually happened too. I had thought that Maggie knocked the other woman out, that she didn't stand up until they already counted till ten, and she got Maggie after that in pure spite. I kept expecting the police to rush in to the ring, and when they didn't, I kept expecting to hear about how she had gone to jail. After all, why would they have put the stool back in the ring if the round wasn't over? Later on the way they alluded to the fight didn't jibe with what I thought had happened. Admittedly, I saw the movie 3-4 weeks ago, so this is my best recreation of events from memory. To me it was a somewhat confusing and ambiguous thing that didn't get explained in a very satisfactory way. Anyway, still a great movie, but I would have probably preferred The Avaiator or Ray for best picture. It seems like it's been a LONG time since a best picture nominated movie really completely blew me away to where I thought, "now, THIS was one of the best movies I've ever seen" or where I felt genuinely completely moved and like I had seen a truly flawless work of art - I guess every year can't have movies like Field of Dreams, Chariots of Fire, Star Wars, Annie Hall, Gandhi, Goodfellas, The Sixth Sense, etc. I do remember being especially blown away by Gangs of New York, though, and that wasn't too long ago...

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Posted By: Julie

--ghost of main character in "The Sixth Sense" to his wife, after arriving very late for an anniversary dinner. The director/wrirer cheated! That statement implies a conversation earlier in the day, not before the guy died...

I read an article in the local rag about the MDB writer, Haggis, and how much better he'd been writing for TV (EZStreet). Article's main beef was that the dirty fighter had committed "several" intolerable infractions already, before the end of the figtht, and, in a real boxing ring, the fight would NEVER have been allowed to continue. So the end of the fight could never even have happened.

Gary, I do not agree that ALL the movies you mentioned are great, but that's what makes boxing matches! (or is it horse races?)

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Posted By: barrysloate

Julie- Did you know that Hillary Swank trained at Gleason's Gym, which is in my neighborhood and just a couple of blocks from where your sister lives/lived? Is she still in Brooklyn Heights? I haven't seen the film yet, so I am abstaining from reading these posts. They seem filled with plot summary.

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Posted By: Julie

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Posted By: barrysloate

I live in Cobble Hill. Doesn't she live on the other side of Atlantic Avenue? That's the Heights.

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Posted By: Julie

it'll turn up on Google! On Remsen street, about 2 blocks from you, in Cobble Hill.

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Posted By: barrysloate

Remsen is the Heights, I'm in Cobble Hill.

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Posted By: Julie

I've known that for about 20 years! Could SHE be wrong? (seems unlikely). She used to live on henry Street--isn't that where you live? Anyway, I sent you an e-mail with her address. Tried to send a "Mapquest" map, but they won't accept "Barry D. Sloate," and I don't know what your e-mail address is anymore.

P.S. BARRY WAS RIGHT--MY SISTER HASN'T LIVED IN COBBLE HILL SINCE 1985. SHE MAY HAVE MISSPOKEN HERSELF WHEN I WAS THERE, OR SHE MAY HAVE BEEN TALKING ABOURT BARRY'S HOUSE.