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Notes
1 A. J. Liebling (Citation1951, 3) cites Pierce Egan’s (Citation1824) poetic description of boxing as “the sweet science of bruising,” employing it in the title of his own, book-length analysis of the sport.
2 Gerard Genette terms voice-overs such as Scrap’s “homodiegetic” in that they are the voice of a character within the story. He contrasts this with third-person narrative; “heterodiegetic” voice-over issues from an anonymous source, someone outside the story. Genette also distinguishes between narratives that are “embedded,” that tell a story within the story and those such as Scrap’s that encompass or “frame” the story we see with their voice-over (Citation1980, 244–245).
3 Megan Williams takes the trope further, arguing that Scrap joins Frankie as same-sexed parents, thereby forming a “nuclear family of three” (169–170).
4 I will put to one side discussion of a fairly prominent, goofy young hanger-on at the gym. “Danger” Barch spends most of the film shadow-boxing and spouting off. He functions chiefly as a foil to a more accomplished but brash and cruel young fighter, and as supplemental evidence of Scrap’s compassion and decency.
5 Several years later, Eastwood starred in another film in which the bonds with his biological daughter have frayed. As in Million Dollar Baby, the context of renewal is sports. In Trouble with the Curve, Gus is able to reconnect with his disaffected daughter as the pair scout prospective athletes for a professional baseball team. Offering a caring explanation for why he had stopped taking her to ballparks when she was a child, Gus puts the reunion with Mickey (played winsomely by Amy Adams) on firm ground.
6 As a transliteration, this rendering is approximate. “Mo Chuisle” may also be an acceptable, even more accurate, version of the Gaelic phrase.
7 In a master stroke of easily overlooked understatement, Mickey Mack utters nary a word either in greeting Maggie or in responding to her.
8 Choosing a bit of Gaelic also fits with Frankie attempting to learn the language and his fondness for Irish poets. Edward Gallafent also situates Frankie’s learning of Gaelic within the linguistic matrix that informs his life; these include writing letters (to the departed biological daughter), reading Yeats’ poetry to Maggie, and Frankie’s penchant for such phrases as “tough ain’t enough” and “always protect yourself” (49).
9 Echoing Sterritt’s analysis, Howard Hughes notes: “From the film’s 88th minute, when Billie’s punch Connects with Maggie and sends her sprawling, the tone [of the movie] changes in an instant” (158). Megan Williams situates Million Dollar Baby in the tradition of forties melodrama and so interprets Maggie’s paralysis as a “self-inflicted punishment” due to her transgressing the traditional role of women by entering the violent male world of boxing (179). I leave it to the reader to assess this construal, adding only my own reservations about how well it squares with the story and the most plausible interpretation(s) of it.
10 This does seem like a plot glitch to me. I cannot fathom how an illegally thrown punch, coming after the bell signaling the round’s end, would not automatically disqualify Billie, the champ. Recall that the ref had previously warned Billie against any further dirty tactics.
11 Howard Hughes takes a grimmer approach, writing that “The story uses boxing as a metaphor for life’s lost Opportunities and failures” (158).
12 In his discussion of the controversy over the film’s depiction of euthanasia/assisted suicide carried on by movie critics, Sterritt cites with approval Frank Rich’s comment that there is no happy ending even “for the pure of heart” and that “some crises do not have black-and-white solutions” (193).
13 Scrap’s emphasis on “the shot” harkens back to Marlon Brando’s famous speech as the fighter Terry Malloy in Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront. Talking with his brother Charlie (Rod Steiger) in the back of a taxi, Terry chastises his brother for pressuring him into taking a dive, for betting purposes, when as Terry sees it, that was his night. Instead of ascending the ladder of boxing to the level of “contender” (for the crown), Terry descended it and became “a bum,” with a “one-way ticket to Palookaville.” Mercenary interests cost the young pugilist “his shot.”
14 Howard Hughes astutely links Frankie terminating Maggie’s life with an event that Maggie had earlier shared with Frankie. “Maggie’s mercy killing is mirrored in a moment from her childhood, when her father had to put down the family’s crippled dog” (159).
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Joseph Kupfer
Joseph Kupfer is University Professor of Philosophy at Iowa State University, where he teaches ethics, aesthetics, and medical ethics. Recent articles deal with virtue, care, sainthood, and philosophy in film. His latest book is Virtue and Vice in Popular Film (Routledge, 2021).