Review of Raging Bull (1980) by James M — 04 Apr 2016

Martin Scorsese has made an art-filled portrayal of a man that many would call an animal. Raging Bull was a film project that Robert Deniro wanted to do after he watched Jake LaMotta's autobiography and read the book the film was based on. It was thanks to Deniro that saved Scorsese's life from his troubled phase when he saw something in common between LaMotta and his life around the time making the film.

Robert Deniro was phenomenal as Jake LaMotta, breathing new life to a character in ways that made his performance really astonishing back then. He got in shape to play a boxer and then put on a hulking amount of weight to play his has-been alter-ego in the later part. I really like how Deniro acts against Joe Pesci as his brother, who by the way, was Pesci's major film role that got him public recognition around the time when he was thinking of quitting on his acting career. Most of my favourite scenes are with Deniro and Pesci in the picture playing off as brothers.

Paul Schrader who wrote Taxi Driver gave the same raw, insightful treatment to the film as he did for Taxi driver. The screenplay was relentless, yet enticing to see in motion picture. His work had fleshed out the main character in ways that makes him real or at best interesting.

There are many problems with Jake LaMotta himself as a human being. He is angry, mean, ugly, judgmental, paranoid and violent worst of all. He has the rough aspect of being human such as perseverance and physicality. Jake LaMotta possesses no real redeeming qualities that would consider him a decent person in the eye of society. He even asked his ex-wife if he was that bad in real life after watching this film. She told him that he was worse.

I love the black and white cinematography for Raging Bull that gives it the mid-century. It also makes the film look more timeless, aging much better than if it was in colour. During the montage sequence that does feature colour, it is a cleaver form of storytelling without words that glamourizes LaMotta's life. How they film the boxing scenes were mesmerizing as far as how brutal and hyperbolic it appears. There are parts like the face of a boxer is bursting open with blood or how much smoke is brewing around them like they are descending to hell.

Now I hate it when people come into these films having fixed expectations and end up hating it. Raging Bull is not all about boxing since it is only a backdrop. It revolves around the character study of a man retaining an abusive lifestyle and paranoid oversights during his prime. And whatever I said earlier about Jake LaMotta was referring to him, not the actor playing him. Raging Bull is a masterpiece that easily stands out among others in that decade and is definitely on my top 3 best films by Scorsese.