Million Dollar Baby and The Theme of Marriage

Million Dollar Baby is most interested in investigating the complex relationship between Maggie, a middle aged womyn with nothing to lose, and Frankie, a.k.a. Boss, an older man who has lost all faith. His frequent visits to church cannot come close to restoring his faith in the world but Maggie offers him a new chance for belief in something. Although this film is clearly a drama the relationship between Maggie and Boss shares close ties with the 1930's comedies of remarriage. What is most interesting to me about remarriage is not the fact that they are comedies but rather the fact that they explore how a man and womyn negotiate an equal relationship with one another.

The first feature this film shares with the remarriage genre is that Boss presides over the education of Maggie as her trainer teaching her everything she needs to know to win boxing matches. But this education is not limited to boxing; it is simultaneously the creation of Maggie as a new womyn. Maggie knows that without Boss as her trainer she will never become the womyn and boxer she dreams of being. In the remarriage genre the father's duty is to preside over the education of his daughter and in this regard Boss takes the place of Maggie's absent father. There are several lines of dialogue in which Maggie compares Boss to her father and this is the foundation of their relationship.

But like "The Lady Eve" where Hopsy becomes both father and lover to Jean, Boss is also a lover and father to Maggie; we never see them physically make love but several scenes in the movie represent a union between them. The most obvious scene is the dialogue sequence immediately before Maggie fights for the British title when Boss says "If you win this fight I'll propose to you." This in itself is a proposition which is solidified when she wins the fight and the union is sealed when she jumps on him and he holds her in his arms.