On This Day

Million Dollar Baby released

December 15th 2004

12:19 15 December 2023

Clint Eastwood's 'Million Dollar Baby' opened in theaters in the US and Canada on this day in 2004. The early 2000’s had seen Eastwood hit a rich vein of form. After the success of the excellent ‘Mystic River’ (2003) he went straight into production on the boxing drama based on the short stories by F.X. Toole, this time in front as well as behind the camera, starring alongside Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman.

The script had been repeatedly rejected by studios and struggled to find backing even with Eastwood onboard as director and actor.

Once the budget and distribution had been secured, Eastwood shot his film in less than 40 days between June and July 2004.

Badly promoted by Warner Brothers as a “female Rocky”, which would have confounded some audiences when the film takes a darker, more sombre turn midway through, the picture nevertheless went on to become a huge global success and earned Eastwood the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director as well as Oscars for Swank and Freeman as Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor respectively.

This is a film about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, about regret and loss and knowing when to hold on and when to let go. It’s also one of the best films this century.