"Million Dollar Baby" (2004) won four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director (Clint Eastwood), Best Actress (Hilary Swank), and Best Supporting Actor (Morgan Freeman). It was nominated for three additional Oscars: Best Actor (Eastwood again), Best Editing, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
The screenplay was based on the book "Rope Burns: Stories From the Corner" by F. X. Toole, the pen name of the late Jerry Boyd, best remembered in the boxing world as a cut man.
But "Million Dollar Baby" is far from a conventional sports movie, and it takes on controversial subject matter that has sparked sociopolitical commentary and debate.
The film's story centers around Maggie Fitzgerald (Swank), a young woman from a trashy family who's eking out a living as a waitress. Believing she can make a better life for herself by becoming a professional boxer, she approaches aging gym-owner Frankie Dunn (Eastwood) and persuades him to train her. The heart of the movie is the father-daughter-like relationship between Frankie and Maggie.
A key character in the film is Eddie "Scrap-Iron" Dupris (Freeman), a former boxer who lives at Frankie's gym and becomes a sort of surrogate uncle to Maggie. Scrap also serves as narrator, helping to give the movie its enormous emotional punch.
On DVD, there are three versions of "Million Dollar Baby." Two of these are two-disc editions, identical except that one contains the feature film in widescreen, while the other has it in full-screen. (Each of the two-disc editions is also available packaged with Toole's book "Rope Burns" retitled "Million Dollar Baby.") The third DVD version is the same as the widescreen two-disc version, except there is a third disc which is an audio CD of the film's music.
The extras, except for the music CD, are the same for all three versions, and I would say they are a bit skimpy. None of the DVD versions provides an audio commentary track, and the significant bonus materials have a combined running time of under an hour.
The longest extra is the 25-minute "James Lipton Takes on Three," a roundtable discussion with Eastwood, Swank, and Freeman that is moderated by Lipton. There's also the 19-minute featurette "Born to Fight," in which cast members, including Netherlands-born boxer Lucia Rijker (who plays Billie "The Blue Bear"), discuss the relationship of the film to real life. Finally, there's the 13-minute "The Producers' Round 15," in which Albert S. Ruddy, Tom Rosenberg, and Paul Haggis (who also wrote the screenplay) take a behind-the-scenes look at the movie, including negotiations with author F. X. Toole. All three of these extras are in English with French subtitles optionally available.
Below I've listed all the details for the widescreen two-disc edition of the "Million Dollar Baby" DVD.
DVD Details for the Widescreen Two-Disc Edition:
Release Date: July 12, 2005
Number of Discs: 2
Feature Run Time: 2 Hours 12 Minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for Violence, Some Disturbing Images, Thematic Material and Language
Anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1), Color
English Dolby Digital 5.1
French Dolby Digital 5.1 (dubbed in Québec)
English Subtitles
Spanish Subtitles
French Subtitles
James Lipton Takes on Three (25 min.)
Born to Fight (19 min.)
The Producers' Round 15 (13 min.)
Theatrical Trailer
