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'I am merely amused or embarrassed or tender when I remember what I thought the first time I read a book I later followed to another depth; but I remain faithful to responses I first had to movies, even if I can no longer share them.'

- Stanley Cavell, The World Viewed

Here's what I like about Million Dollar Baby: Hilary Swank's smile; the smell of the gym; the training montage; the knock-out montage. You'd have to be Clint Eastwood, I guess, to pull off a classic boxing flick in 2005... Although the other recent movie it reminds me of most is 8 Mile. Back to the blue-collar values of honesty, persistence, hard work, thrift (there's a great line - I forget exactly - where Clint says, 'You keep spending your money on things that aren't important, pretty soon you've got nothing at all'). And, interestingly, these are not family values, but values that necessitate the sacrifice of the family: in both films, a crucial stage in the hero/ine's evolution is passed with the realisation that s/he must leave behind her/his family - or invent her/his own family - in order to achieve her/his potential. 'My darling, my blood,' Clint's last words to Hilary. This is what all great movies are about, there are no exceptions.