Sylvester Stallone's 1976 slightly flawed masterpiece can be blamed for many things in Hollywood, not the least of which is five Rocky sequels. Another film that owes its eye to the tiger is Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby starring the two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank. Of course, critics and fans of the film will argue that Eastwood's Academy-Award winning take on the boxing world is meatier, more gritty and realistic, and somehow a more mature film. While Eastwood is certainly a talented and worldly-wise director, compared to Stallone who still hasn't advanced past the action-hero syndrome, at heart the stories are essentially the same.

In Million Dollar Baby, which is now available on DVD, Clint Eastwood plays a Rocky Balboa type, down on his luck and without all that Italian good cheer. He is a hardened trainer and manager and meets up with a determined young woman who wants nothing out of life except to enjoy her few moments in the sun, yes the boxing ring. The gnarling Frankie Dunn replies to ebullient Maggie Fitzgerald (imagine SpongeBob in the ring) that he doesn't train girls. Does Maggie eventually win over his heart? Yes, in fact, too much of it. This American underdog success story is also nuanced love story, though both Frankie and Maggie avoid the comfort zone in favor of their professional love.

As predictable as Million Dollar Baby is, it is an emotionally charged drama, that delivers arguably Clint Eastwood's career-best performance. The emotional impact of the overall film is probably more effective than the sentimental goodbye in the ending which is delivered as a hard, obvious uppercut in Rocky-like style. But you can't fault sentimentality for being too sweet. America loves its weepers, and the Oscars always manage to reward the one weeper of the year, that successfully fought its way out of the Life Time network line up. Compared to The Aviator and the far superior but emotionally distant talk-fest Closer, Million Dollar Baby was a tad overrated and its success at the 2004 Academy Awards undeserved, much in the same way Rocky prevailed over Sidney Lumet's biting satire, Network in 1977.

Hilary Swank also made history by winning two Oscars for Best Actress in less than ten years, also KO-ing Annette Bening in each contest. Hilary Swank is a good actress and can deliver a knock-out death scene. But her real claim to fame is her fearless choices in character roles and her determination to make herself look ugly. In Boys Don't Cry and Million Dollar Baby, she takes off her femininity and hops around in a man's world, dying elegantly for her courage in both films.

Rocky was the Million Dollar Baby of its day--both films glorified losers, and losing, in the most beautiful way possible. Every few decades a boxing film comes around that fascinates the movie going public along with the Motion Picture Academy. Mankind must relate to the boxing ring on an instinctive level, in all avenues of life. Didn't Rocky Balboa say it best? "You, me or nobody is going to hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit, it is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much can you take and keep moving forward." And Frankie Dunn replies, "It's gonna be allright, you hear?" Such optimism! No wonder everybody loves boxing. Rocky: A- Million Dollar Baby: A-