"Million Dollar Baby" as a film adaption. An analysis of major similarities and differences between the short story and the film (eBook)

Document from the year 2015 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 1,0, , language: English, abstract: Most of the time the content of a movie on TV or in cinema is based on the written word, like a novel or an opera or a play. Also short stories, such as "Million $$$ Baby", have inspired movies very often. The literary work of other writers serve as a main source of input, often somehow giving the story a new twist. In fact, 85 percent of all Oscar-winning films, 95 percent of all miniseries and 70 percent all TV movies that win Emmy Awards are adaptations. Why are adaptations so successful? In this term paper I would like to answer this question. Furthermore, I will survey if for "Million $$$ Baby" the adaptation is its own heterocosm, with its individual characters, settings and events or if it is simply an imitation of the original. I am going to investigate if the form of the original changes by adapting, if the content does persist or if the source only serves as a hollow corpse. Further, this approach will try to give an answer to what is it that constitutes the transmuted and transferred content.

The film adaptation Million Dollar Baby was directed and starred by Clint Eastwood in 2004 with Hilary Swank and Morgan Freemann in the other title roles. The screenplay of the film was written by Paul Haggis and based on the short story with the same name Million $$$ Baby by F.X. Toole, which is to be found in his book Rope Burns. Toole himself worked as a “cut man” in the ring, where he had to patch up the boxer's injuries so he could continue fighting. His expert knowledge and love to the sport can be very well experienced in his stories.
When the adaptation was criticised especially by disability right activists, Eastwood stated that the film was about the American and that he distances himself from the characters and actions in the film. He as a filmmaker is simply showing things as they are and not judging the decisions and operations of his figures. This might be easy to say, because the storyline is adopted. But in general, the task of a filmmaker is not to tell the audience what is proper to do. Nevertheless, Clint Eastwood's film adaptation of the short story won four Academy Awards and a prize for Best Picture.