MovieChat Forums > Million Dollar Baby (2005) Discussion > Who else didn't know what it was really ...

Who else didn't know what it was really about?

posted 5 years ago by Heisenberg (6377)
6 replies | jump to latest

spoilers ahead
This movie is one of the few examples I can think of of a movie that I watched without knowing what it really was about, that didn't just have a twist at the end.
I think I'm one of the many viewers that went in thinking it was about a female rocky movie, while instead I got this euthanasia essay that moved and surprised me.
Really awesome art, even more so for the fact that I was surprised like the people in the movie: expecting something out of this story and having to face another music.
Was everybody surprised like me or did you know what it was really about?

[–] Strazdas (2328) 3 years ago

Yes, i was sold on this movie as a boxing movie about a woman (because everything needs a gender spin nowadays, ech?). Turns out that the movie was really about acceptance and human will. And its better for it i think. If it was limited to the boxing part i would have liked it less.

[–] Heisenberg (6377) 3 years ago

Yes, the real theme of the movie is what lifts it higher than it could ever be as a yet another underdog boxer story. I loved it. And loved to be surprised by it.
Really a rare example of a moive like this.

[–] Melton (2497) 6 months ago

I had no idea it was gonna pull a From Dusk Till Dawn genre-swap half way through, and in a way it also becomes a kind of horror movie - her predicament is the stuff of nightmares, and even involves limbs being severed.

The film has haunted me for years and I need a rewatch.

[–] Heisenberg (6377) 6 months ago

Yes it becomes a tragedy with some horrific elements, but they are there to give us a jolt about how an event can really change the tone of life.

FDTD is a good example of genre swap half way through, but I think everyone knew that it was about vampires. If anything it was a surprise crime story beginning for a vampire movie (and its best part).
MDB instead had me ambushed.

The film has haunted me for years too, and I doubt I can rewatch it.

[–] Gd5150 (11105) 6 months ago

Richard Dreyfuss was in a movie with a similar plot back in the early 80s. “Whose Life is it Anyway?”. These movies are tough to watch.

[–] Heisenberg (6377) 6 months ago

This film has haunted me for years too, and I doubt I can rewatch it.