![]() ![]() Rex Reed gushed, "The two-fisted script by Paul Haggis has a violent and bloody lyricism about the lexicon of pugilism" ( source). The Washington Post's Ann Hornaday described it as "as lean, if not mean, as the boxers at the Hit Pit" ( source). Critics heaped praise onto Haggis's screenplay by the bucket load. Haggis's colorful, yet sinewy script for Million Dollar Baby was his breakthrough-and, boy, did he break through. Never heard of it? You're not the only one. His only prior screenplay credit was for a Canadian drama about rock 'n' roll in 1950s Russia called Red Hot. Million Dollar Baby was Haggis's first foray into American feature films. He's the guy that created Walker, Texas Ranger. The Love Boat, Diff'rent Strokes, and EZ Streets: Haggis had quite the resume of '80s and '90s small screen hits. Before he cranked out the script for Million Dollar Baby, combining the narrator from one of Toole's Rope Burns stories with the plot from another, Haggis was a longtime TV writer ( source). ![]() Boyd, who was missing a large chunk of his ear because it got bitten off in a street fight, wanted to keep it that way. Toole's real name was Jerry Boyd, but according to film critic Paul Byrnes, none of Boyd's boxing buddies knew he was a writer. Toole sounds like a made-up name, it's because it is. He was a spry 70 years old when it finally hit shelves in 2000. It took the former boxing manager, bartender, and bullfighter forty years to get his first book, Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner, published. Paul Haggis Boxing Rings, Bull Fights, and Bookshelves… Oh My!į.X. ![]()
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