ACSBlog: The Blog of the American Constitution Society

by Kent Greenfield, Professor of Law and Thomas Carney Scholar, Boston College Law School

This year's Oscar darling was the poignant account of aging manager Frankie Dunn, played by Clint Eastwood, training Hillary Swank's Maggie to box. While conservatives have decried the film as glorifying euthanasia, the film has become the favorite of liberal Hollywood because of its depiction of an independent, non-sexualized woman who succeeds because of physical strength and endurance. Swank and Morgan Freeman, who plays a former boxer relegated to janitorial duties in Frankie's gym, won acting Oscars. Eastwood took home the director's statue, and the movie won Best Picture.

I think liberals have gotten the movie wrong. I am progressive, and I was profoundly disappointed. I found the film's clich?©d portrayals of the poor, of Southerners, of African Americans, and - yes - of women extremely problematic.

Let's start with the hackneyed depiction of the poor. Maggie's family is the epitome of trailer trash. They live in Ozark squalor, lying to cheat the government out of welfare money. When Maggie buys her mother a new home with her boxing winnings, the mother refuses to accept the house claiming that it will spell the end of her welfare checks. Later, when Maggie lies helpless in a hospital, the mother and other family members -with trucker hats and accents straight from central casting - arrive to cheat Maggie out of her remaining assets. In the movie's view, the poor are poor because they like it that way. They are not only liars and cheats but heartless as well.

It is not a coincidence that Maggie is from the South, or at least that she and her family speak with southern accents. In Hollywood, the southern accent is synonymous with stupidity. Other than Maggie's family, the only other southerner in the film is a young wannabe boxer ironically named Danger. He is so dim that he asks Freeman's character, Eddie, how ice got inside a water bottle recently extracted from a freezer.

The clich?©s stretch to blacks. Eddie is a sympathetic sort, looking after Danger and prodding Frankie to take Maggie under his wing. But he fits into a long line of African-American sycophants in Hollywood cinema, living by the benevolence of his white boss. He lives in the gym, with apparently not a cent to his name even though he works long days for Frankie. His socks are in tatters, and when Frankie so realizes he offers to buy Eddie some new ones. As if Eddie is paid in scrip, he must go through his boss for new clothes.

Most black faces in the film are sadistic ones, however. While Eddie is easily distracted, a street-smart African-American boxer beats Danger dangerously close to death. This is done for fun. Later, the film's vilest character - a black, female boxer who is a former prostitute - inflicts an even worse beating on Maggie. Viewers may be enticed to ignore the villain's black face because we are told she is German. But her looks are stereotypically African-American, complete with corn-rows.

The movie, perhaps surprisingly, also depends on age-old clich?©s of women. Maggie, though tough as nails, is completely lost without the help of a male protector and teacher. At the beginning of the movie she is unable to do anything other than waitress and box, and the latter not so well. She lives only a physical existence, with no apparent life of the mind; no books occupy her small apartment. Maggie is not a fully-realized character - she has no sexuality to speak of, and her sole desire is to be a champion. Only Frankie's training is able to transform her natural ability and will power into success. She is totally dependent on him.

Her dependency becomes even more obvious in the final scenes, which are admittedly touching. Because she had lived only a physical existence, her condition is unsustainable. Frankie tries to help Maggie read, but there is either no interest or ability and the effort is dropped quickly.

The movie's dramatic tension is resolved when Frankie is forced to care for her like family, and in so doing substitutes Maggie for his long-estranged daughter. He is finally fulfilled, not by her boxing success but by her dependency. In the end, her most fateful decisions become his.

I understand why people enjoy the movie - the tenderness between Frankie and Maggie is genuinely moving, and the acting is sublime.

But Million Dollar Baby is a White Man's Burden of a movie. Except for Frankie, all characters are defined by their physicality and will, rather than intelligence. Everyone depends on the benevolence of the white boss/trainer/master. The harmful stereotypes are everywhere, but they are easy to miss. They do not cease to be harmful simply because they are portrayed so sympathetically and well.