“Raging Bull”
Movie Review
Martin Scorsese's American biographical sports drama film
Raging Bull was produced by Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler, and it was based
from Jake LaMotta's 1970 autobiography Ranging Bull: My Story by Paul Schrader
and Mardik Martin. The movie stars Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta, an
Italian-American middleweight boxer whose relationships with his wife and
family were ruined by his self-destructive and obsessional wrath, jealousy, and
animalistic desire. Joe Pesci, who plays LaMotta's brother Joey, and Cathy
Moriarty, who is making her acting debut, both appear in the movie. Theresa
Saldana, Frank Vincent, and Nicholas Colasanto all have supporting appearances
in the movie, and John Turturro debuts in a role that is uncredited.
LaMotta suffered his first defeat in a crucial boxing
contest against Jimmy Reeves in 1941. One of his Maia contacts, Salvy Batts,
and Jake's brother Joey explore a prospective middleweight title fight, but
Salvy Batts consistently declines the mafia's assistance. Later on, Jake sees
Vickie, a fifteen-year-old girl from his Bronx neighborhood, at an outdoor
pool. Despite the fact that he is already married, he finally seeks a
relationship with her. After defeating Sugar Ray Robinson in 1943, Jake faced
him again three weeks later. Despite Robinson winning the fight handily over
Jake, Joey believes Robinson only prevailed because Jake was enrolling in the
Army the following week. Jake marries Vickie in 1945.
Vickie's statements on Tony Janiro, Jake's opponent in his
upcoming fight, in particular, cause Jake constant worry that she harbors
feelings for other guys. When he viciously defeats Janeiro in front of Vickie
and the neighborhood mob boss Tommy Como, his resentment is clear. Joey is
interrupted as he speaks with reporters at the Copacabana about the triumph as
Vickie walks over to a table with Salvy and his team. Vickie, who Joey speaks
with, claims she has given up on his brother. Joey accuses Salvy of the
altercation, and when it spills outside the club, he savagely assaults him. Later,
Como demands an apology from them and instructs Joey to inform Jake that he
must first take a dive in order to have a shot at winning the championship
title, which Como controls. After momentarily pummeling his opponent in a
contest against Billy Fox, Jake doesn't even attempt to put up a fight. He is
accused of staging the fight and promptly removed from the board, though he
only realizes his error of judgment after it is too late. After being
eventually reinstated, he defeats Marcel Cerdan to win the middleweight belt in
1949.
Jake queries Joey a year later about if Vickie was the
reason for their altercation at the Copacabana. Jake then inquires as to
whether Joey had an affair with her; Joey declines to respond, belittles Jake,
and departs. When Vickie tries to escape from Jake in the bathroom, he knocks
down the door, forcing her to jokingly admit that she had sex with everyone in
the neighborhood out of weariness and asking, "What do you want me to
say!?" Vickie is confronted by Jake directly about the affair. Vickie and
Jake stomp angrily over to Joey's house, where they attack Joey in front of Lenora
and their kids before Jake knocks Vickie out.
When Joey assumes Salvy is on the other end and starts
criticizing and cursing at him, Jake hangs up the phone. In 1950, he had just
won his title belt back following a hard fifteen-round fight against Laurent
Dauthuille. Being estranged from Joey causes Jake's career to slowly
deteriorate, and in their final match in 1951, Sugar Ray Robinson defeats him
to claim the title.
Jake and his family relocated to Miami in 1956. Vickie
informs him that she wants a divorce and sole custody of their children after
he spends the entire night there at his new nightclub. Additionally, she makes
a threat to contact the police if he approaches them in any way. He is later
taken into custody for introducing minors to guys at his club. Instead of
selling the championship belt, he makes a failed attempt to bribe his way out
of his felony situation using the diamonds from the belt. He enters prison in
1957 while bemoaning his misfortune and sobbing in despair. When he returns to
New York City in 1958, he runs into Joey, who is understanding but evasive.
Jake now quotes the line "I coulda been a
contender" from the 1954 movie On the Waterfront, in which Terry Malloy
bemoans the fact that his brother should have been there for him but is also
willing to give himself some credit. This is Jake's second time using this line
in 1964. Jake begins to chant "I'm the boss" while shadowboxing after
a stagehand alerts him to the crowded nature of the theater where he will be
performing.
Although Martin Scorsese initially expressed reluctance to
take on the film, he finally warmed to LaMotta's narrative. Martin's original
screenplay was revised by Schrader, and Scorsese and De Niro combined to make
uncredited changes after that. Prior to the movie, neither Pesci nor Moriarty,
whom Pesci proposed for her role, were well-known actors. Each boxing scene in
the movie was choreographed throughout production for a certain visual look,
and De Niro put on about 60 pounds to play LaMotta in his later post-boxing
years. Given that he believed this might be his final big motion picture,
Scorsese was meticulous in the editing and mixing processes.
The movie Raging Bull was first presented on December 19,
1980. Upon its premiere, the movie got mixed reviews; while De Niro's acting
and the editing received widespread praise, the movie also drew criticism for
its brutal subject matter. Despite the negative reviews, the movie received
eight Academy Award nominations for the 53rd Academy Awards, including Best
Picture and Best Director, and took home two of them: Best Actor for De Niro
and Best Editing.
After its debut, Raging Bull received a lot of positive
reviews and is today regarded as one of the best movies ever created. It was
the first movie to be chosen by the Library of Congress as being
"culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" in its first
year of eligibility for preservation in the United States National Film
Registry, and the American Film Institute ranked it as the fourth greatest
American film of all time.
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