Best Supporting Actor 2004: Morgan Freeman in Million Dollar Baby

Morgan Freeman won his Oscar from his fourth nomination for portraying Eddie 'Scrap Iron' Dupris in Million Dollar Baby.

Morgan Freeman although would have been a deserving winner for all of his previous nomination, especially for Street Smart, he did not win until here in the best picture winner Million Dollar Baby, which is film that just gets worse and worse every time I watch the dreary film. Morgan Freeman here did received a career Oscar here, that really seemed to be a role that was far too much devised Freeman. This sometimes can mean they'll give a performance, and it will be a role they were born to play, but it can also cause one to give a very by the books and standard performance like Freeman's here.

Morgan Freeman offers the narration in the film, and it is not nearly as well handled as in The Shawshank Redemption. In Shawshank it was frankly better performed, but also better used in that it felt like more of the reflections of his character more than just narration, here it feels just like narration nothing more. Freeman being the narrator is only one facet that feels like a far too standard of a role for Freeman. His role is just of a has been old timer who offers advice to the main characters not much more than that.

Most of the time in the film Freeman just gives the same slightly dispassionate expression. It sort of makes sense due to what happened to his character but it does nothing to brighten up the dreary nature of the film, and it would have been nice if there was a performance that did that. Freeman's performance really is just rather repetitiveness giving that same expression that reflects his past, but trying to offer some warmth or advice to the other characters in a minimalist fashion, that again technically fits the character, but feels always like a far too by the books performance from Freeman.

Freeman gave some good performances in the past he was amazing in Street Smart for example, but in Street Smart he really went as far as possible with his performance, and created a truly memorable character. Here though Freeman never turns Scrap Iron into just a serviceable character because of his only serviceable performance. I will admit it is not a bad performance because Freeman is a good enough actor that he really has to try to give a bad performance, but his performance is very uninspired.

Posted in: 2004 best supporting actor, Morgan Freeman