Raging
Bull
Raging Bull is a 1980 film directed by Martin Scorsese (Academy Award nomination - Best Director) adapted by Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin from the memoir Raging Bull: My Story. It stars Robert De Niro, Academy Award - Best Actor, as Jake LaMotta, a temperamental, paranoid, tenacious boxer who alienates himself from friends and family. Also featured in the film are Joe Pesci (Academy Award nomination - Best Supporting Actor) as Joey, La Motta's brother and manager, and Cathy Moriarty (Academy Award nomination - Best Supporting Actress) as his abused wife. The film features strong supporting roles from Nicholas Colasanto (who was eventually to play the character Coach on the TV sitcom Cheers), Theresa Saldana and Scorsese regular Frank Vincent.
Scorsese disliked the way previous boxing films shot fight scenes from a spectator's view, hence insulating a audience from the brutality of the ring. Throughout the filming, Scorsese's mantra remained stay in the ring, he was determined to capture "raw violence" of every punch and make the viewer feel everything the boxers did. Each intricately choreographed boxing sequence would have a different style reflecting LaMotta's varying states of mind during the different fights. Scorsese drew every shot of these on paper before the shooting, and both he and Chapman have commented on difficulties caused by elaborate setups.
- SPOILER -
The film begins with Jake LaMotta late in his life practicing his stand up comic routine and then flashes back to A early boxing career. LaMotta (De Niro) is a strong, tenacious vicious fighter from the Bronx and his brother Joey (Pesci) is his manager. LaMotta slowly climbs the ladder to the top of the boxing world (due to numerous setbacks mostly involving his personal life and weight problems) as he courts a relationship with Vicki (Moriarty) a 15 year-old girl he meets in his neighbourhood. After his first wife leaves, he starts a relationship with her which eventually leads to marriage and children. After his marriage he becomes increasingly paranoid and obsessive on his wife and suspects her of infidelity.
Later, he believes his brother had a relationship
with his wife behind his back and acting out on explosive rage, he lashes out
violently on his brother who then leaves him. LaMotta finally loses his title
to his arch rival Sugar Ray Robinson and retires from boxing a few years later
due to weight problems and becomes a relatively successful stand up comedian and
night club owner. At this point, his wife arranges her affairs and divorces Jake,
taking custody of children while LaMotta ends up in jail for abetting statutory
rape. He realizes what a terrible person he was and discovers that it'll stay
the same unless he changes completely.
The film was distributed by United Artists, studio executives were initially reluctant to finance the project as they feared the extreme profanity and violence in the screenplay would draw an X from the MPAA ratings board. Scorsese and De Niro reworked the script and were able to proceed. Because of his lifelong asthma, accompanied by depression (due to the critical and commercial failure of his big-budget musical New York, New York and a serious cocaine addiction that he had recently overcome prior to making the film), Scorsese was convinced he would never make another movie and therefore, he put his heart and soul into making Raging Bull the best film he could. It's been said that in order to add pounds for the role, De Niro consumed dozens of glazed donuts, entire pizzas, half gallons of ice cream and gallons of beer daily until the desired weight was achieved. Robert De Niro won the Academy Award for Best Actor, his second award overall (following his nomination for 1974's The Godfather: Part II) and his first for a leading role. The film also won the Academy Award for Best Editing for Thelma Schoonmaker, whose revolutionary style was different from fight scenes in other boxing films, such as the Rocky series. Raging Bull was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, Best Director and Best Picture.
In a memorable scene in the film, Jake La Motta quotes "I could've been a contender..." from On the Waterfront. Coincidentally, both Raging Bull and On the Waterfront received Academy Awards for Best Actor.
The film has been deemed culturally significant by the US Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. It is 24th on the AFI's list of the 100 greatest American movies and listed 5th on the Entertainment Weekly's 100 Greatest Movies of All Time. A two-CD soundtrack was released in 2005, long after the movie was released, because of earlier difficulties receiving permissions for many of the songs, which Scorsese selected from his childhood memories growing up in New York.
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