Million Dollar Baby Film Overview Essay Example

only come once in a lifetime and that he needs a few more years of training. The following day, Maggie Fitzgerald is introduced during training. Named after the movie itself, Maggie is a spirited trainee who currently works as a waitress to cover her expenses. Despite her persistent attempts to persuade Dunn to train her, he directly refuses, stating that he does not train female fighters.

After Big Willie leaves Dunn for a more successful manager who believes he is ready for a title fight, Dunn is left without a prize fighter to win him a championship. However, impressed with Maggie's persistence and left with nothing else, he agrees to train her temporarily until he can find her a manager (Million Dollar Baby). During her first fight with the new manager, Maggie endures a severe beating until Frankie decides to go ringside and assist her from the corner.

Starting with a series of triumphs, Maggie is eventually invited to challenge the British Welterweight champion. Although Frankie initially hesitates, he ultimately accepts the offer. Before the match, Frankie gives Maggie a boxer's robe that says "Mo Chuisle." Maggie continues her winning streak in Europe until she gets an opportunity to fight against Billie "The Blue Bear," a boxer notorious for his unsportsmanlike behavior, for the World Welterweight title in the movie "Million Dollar Baby."

During the time between the offer and Frankie’s acceptance, the audience is introduced to Maggie’s family, who live in trailers. Maggie buys them a house, but her mother and sister are ungrateful and she is ridiculed for jeopardizing her mother’s welfare payments. This increases the understanding of Maggie’s desperate

determination. In the title fight, Maggie initially struggles but eventually finds her rhythm and starts dominating. However, she is unexpectedly sucker-punched by “The Blue Bear” at the end of one round.

During her descent to the mat, she collides her neck with the leg of her corner’s chair, resulting in a broken neck and paralysis from the waist down. As the movie progresses, the audience witnesses the profound connection between Maggie and Frankie. Even when her family attempts to take away her possessions through legal means, he staunchly remains by her side. Ultimately, he fulfills her last request to be euthanized while she retains her memories of the crowd's cheers and the chant of her name, "Mo Chuisle" (Million Dollar Baby).

During this time, he discloses the significance of “Mo Chuisle”, which translates to “my darling, and my blood” and “my pulse” (Epinions). Frankie holds a prominent position of authority in the film, not only in relation to Maggie but also to his partner Eddie Dupris. However, his leadership style undergoes changes throughout the course of the movie. Initially, when he agrees to train Maggie, his approach to leadership is very authoritarian, instructing her to simply follow his instructions without questioning (Blake and Mouton 187).

Throughout the movie, Frankie and Maggie's leadership roles undergo changes that can be examined using Blake and Mouton's managerial grid as well as the successful leadership traits mentioned by Kirkpatrick and Locke. Although Maggie does not hold an explicit leadership position in the film, she clearly showcases numerous traits outlined by Kirkpatrick and Locke. These traits are employed by her not only in the boxing ring but

also in her interaction with Dunn. In the subsequent papers, I will delve deeper into how these two leadership theories relate to Frankie and Maggie's connection and explore how this dynamic contributes to both their accomplishments and failures.