Final Paper:

Million Dollar Baby Analysis

Victoria Hernandez
4-12-2023
A. Boxing trainer Frankie Dunn is working towards getting his fighter Willie to a title

match. Meanwhile Maggie Fitzgerald has her own plans of convincing Frankie to take her on as

a fighter. Frankie refuses at first because he claims he doesn’t train female fighters. Maggie

remains resilient and determined to show him that she’s worth it. She pays for six months

membership in advance at the boxing training gym in hopes to change Frankie’s mind. At the

center she meets Eddie scrap, Frankie’s best friend and maintenance man at the gym, Eddie is

immediately impressed with Maggie’s willingness to train. Big willie ends up dropping Frankie

as his trainer and goes with mickey mack. This leaves Frankie in a position to notice how hard

Maggie is working on training. He then agrees to train her until he finds her a manager.

Maggie fights her first match and is taking quite the beating. Frankie, on the sidelines

watching with Mr. scrap, can’t bear to watch so he takes over as her manager for the remainder

of the fight and Maggie then knocks out her opponent. Maggie then becomes an extremely

successful fighter who gains a following in Europe only to return to the states and go for a title

match. Maggie takes on “The blue bear”, a fighter known for fighting aggressively. “The blue

bear” ambushes Maggie with a hit to the head and Maggie falls on top of her corner stool

injuring her spine. Fitzgerald then wakes up in a hospital bed and is now quadriplegic as she

fights for her life.

B. Million Dollar Baby is the movie I chose for this analysis. This film showcases sports

leadership in many forms, and it is an example of what it means to believe in yourself. The

primary leaders in this film are Frankie Dunn, Eddie Scrap and Maggie Fitzgerald. Frankie Dunn

is portrayed as an agnostic Irish coach whose sense of humor is dry and who comes off cold.

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Dunn is arrogant, stubborn and emotionally closed off, but he keeps his heart open for those

close to him. Frankie is portrayed in positive and negative ways. The film almost gives us this

love hate relationship with the character. However, Eddie scrap is admired by the audience

entirely. For most of the film he narrates the story in third person. “Mr. Scrap” is supportive and

has a big heart. He looks after not only the gym, but the fighters who have the most heart.

Eddie scrap is portrayed in positive ways. Lastly, Maggie, another leader portrayed in this film,

shows us resiliency, grit and tenacity. Fitzgerald is the epitome of never giving up.

C. After rewatching this film through the lens of sports leadership, I identified five key

learnings that connected to the topics covered over this coursework. The first being:

Mediational Model of leadership. This model of leadership involves three aspects: coach

behaviors, players’ perception and recall of the coach’s behaviors, and players evaluative

reactions to the coach’s behaviors (Arthur, 2020). An example of this is in the beginning of the

film when Maggie is determined to get Frankie to train her. She assesses Frankie and takes

interest in him. Fitzgerald understands how valuable Dunn’s time is and takes everything he

does and says into consideration. Her perception of Dunn is that he is the only one capable of

helping her achieve her goal and she is willing to do whatever it takes to get there.

The second leadership topic identified was Transformational Leadership. Frankie Dunn

and Eddie scrap are two prime examples of what it means to be a transformational leader.

Transformational leadership is characterized as inspiring, values based, developmental and

intellectually stimulating. The easiest way to make sense of this model of leadership is to think

of it in terms of the overall impact this leader has on you. Maggie began her boxing journey

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with hopes to train and become one of the greats. No one had faith in her, her family, the other

boxers at the gym and even Frankie Dunn at one point in the beginning of the film. Regardless,

Eddie scrap always encouraged her and supported her in any way he could. Scrap allowed

Maggie to train after closing hours at the gym, he gave her a borrowed speed bag to use and

offered her some pointers. Dunn eventually chose to train Maggie and as he worked through

his old ways he grew a connection to Maggie. He became a huge influence to her almost that of

a father figure. Through leadership, scrap and Dunn transformed Maggie into a confident,

successful and powerful fighter.

The third leadership topics identified were characteristics of leaders outlined in chapter

three and six of “Reach for the Summit.” Chapter three mentions how leaders develop and

demonstrate loyalty. In the film, scrap always displayed his loyalty to his favorites at the gym.

He looked out for fighters like danger and Maggie, always considering their best interest. When

scrap discovered that Frankie had turned down a title match for Maggie, he shared with her

mickey mack’s contact information. Scrap set up a meeting between the two so that mickey

could offer his manager services to the up-and-coming fighter. Maggie chose to stay loyal to

Frankie as her trainer. Demonstrating loyalty is how loyalty is reciprocated. In chapter six, value

and success is earned through hard work. If one makes hard work their passion, they are more

likely to achieve their goals. Maggie wanted to pursue professional fighting so much that she

worked harder than everyone to even have a chance at it. Pat summit states, “The harder you

work the harder it is to surrender”. Maggie was exactly that.

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 Lastly, in Vince Lombardi’s Leadership, Lombardi mentions that leaders communicate

certainties. “Great leaders are visionaries who have learned to communicate their vision in a

commanding, compelling way. They communicate clearly and simply.” Frankie always knew

what to say to Fitzgerald so that she could work through the obstacles and come out ahead.

Frankie had a way about him that captivated and intrigued Maggie, he exuded his presence as

her trainer and her leader, always. In the beginning of the film when he decided to train Maggie

and get her ready for another manager, he let his authority and knowledge shine about all else.

Frankie was teaching and coaching Maggie the same way that Lombardi coached his football

team. The ability to lead to others can happen at the individual level or through a group of

multiple people. The more people you influence, the stronger your leadership approach is.

Overall, Scrap and Frankie led young amateur boxers the only way they knew how.

Were there moments where each character could have more effectively led? Yes. Although,

their process still proved to be impactful. This course has accented sports leadership and the

various ways coaches lead their teams. The autonomy and individuality that comes with

tailoring your leadership approach to a specific person is what sets successful leaders apart

from the rest.

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 References

Arthur, Callum. (2020) Leadership in Sport

Eastwood, Clint. (2004). Million Dollar Baby [Film] Malpaso Productions

Lombardi, Vince. (2015) Vince Lombardi on Leadership: Life lessons from a Five-Time NFL

Championship Coach

Summit, Pat. (1999) Reach for the Summit

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Movie Analysis Rubric
Name _Victoria Hernandez__ Movie ___Million Dollar Baby_

Criteria Full Points Partial Credit No Credit

Summary of Plot
Provides a thorough
Too broad of a description
description and does not Does not include summary
or not enough detail
exceed page limit
4pts

Discussion of Discusses and explains the

Sports Leadership way the film showcase Writer generally discusses
There is either no mention of
the way the movie applies
sports leadership and sports leadership related to
sports leadership, but more
provides relevant the movie or is missing
information needed
4pts examples

Sports Leadership
Topic & 3 or more topics are 3 or fewer topics are
1 or no topics are referenced
Connection covered and are applicable covered within the
with the assignment. Writer
to movie. Writer does well assignment. Applicability to
provides small or no detail to
in being able to make movie is broad or difficult to
showcase connection.
connections. follow.
10 pts

Flow of
Paper/Accuracy Writer generally stays on Writer does not stay on
All information is accurate,
topic, but is sporadic in topic, a lot of
and the paper is easy to
thought process and may misinformation, and flow of
read and sequential
include misinformation paper is very choppy
4pts

Grammar & Writer showcases close to

Requirements no grammatical mistakes. Writer has more than a few Assignment is filled with
Completes all grammatical or does not grammar issues and or does
requirements related to meet all requirements not meet requirements
4pts length and sections

APA format not followed or

APA Format Format is followed and
Some mistakes regarding followed briefly. Many
writer paid attention to
citations and APA format mistakes throughout
detail
assignment

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