JI:Film Opening Analysis 2: Million Dollar Baby

The genre of the film is a sport/drama. Hillary Swank the main character, is portrayed in a progressive manor, taking up a sport which is generally situated with men, her ambition is to become the next great boxer, which is originally ridiculed by the males situated.

• The mise-en-scene of the boxing equipment clearly situates the audience within a gym, along with the casual, plain costumes of the characters, showing their dressed for training.

• The dark lighting shows the urban style area they are even with no clear setting establishment.
• The use of montage editing, along with the progressive music, without dialogue tells the story that she is developing her boxing skills over a period of time, and that her ambition is becoming a reality.
• The exchange of mid-shot to medium close-ups gives the audience a key image of the training she is putting in, compared to her emotion throughout the training.
• The dialogue over the top allows the audience to feel they're experiencing her progression along with her, and that they've been a part of it.

Within this sequence you see the social background the girl is from with her poor living conditions and low skilled job to get by. This maybe portrays the stereotype person who would be interested in boxing, as it is seen as a rough sport, this is backed up with the run down conditions of the location.

The target audience for Million Dollar Baby is primarily a sporting audience/teenagers with the attraction of boxing involved, however the mixed drama storyline will expand the target audience to young adults. The attraction of having Hilary Swank playing the main character may also attract previous fans of her work, along with the director Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman.

In the sequence Eastwood is training up the girl boxer with the skills and training experience he has. The film brings an un-stereotype view with the boxer being a girl, which in my view is not widely recognised with the typical stereotype of it being to rough for women.

The three main star character within the film are Hilary Swank, Clint Eastwood, who also directed the film, and Morgan Freeman. It is always important to have a big star character for a film to attract a wide audience, as an audience recognises big characters, and their previous work, making the film desirable. All three of these characters have produced excellent work in the past, just one reason why the film was so successful.

At the beginning this film had some trouble getting funding for the project, however when Clint Eastwood was introduced as director and actor, Warner Bros, a massive Hollywood studio, took on the project.