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Overall Rating
  Awesome: 81.76%
Worth A Look: 7.43%
Average: 8.78%
Pretty Bad: 0.68%
Total Crap: 1.35%
4 reviews, 124 user ratings
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| Raging Bull |
by Dennis Swennumson
"Pacino and DeNiro combine for 95% of the most quoted movie lines."
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There’s a catch-22 about historical films, compromise the facts for entertainment value or risk boring the audience with textbook appeal. This goes hand in hand with the biopic, with these films are either treated with sagas of infallible heroes or dull filmed laundry lists of accomplishments. Martin Scorsese’s “Raging Bull” avoids both of these potential flaws, it provides a portrait of a character we simultaneously root for and despise in boxing middleweight champ Jake LaMotta. When “Raging Bull” was released 24 years ago it was a portrayal of one of sports’ most tragic heroes, since then Robert DeNiro’s LaMotta has become an icon in film and one of cinema’s most tragic characters. “Raging Bull” is a film with infinite influence, a landmark of a movie that set a specific standard that few films since have achieved.For me one of the criteria in separating a good film from a great one lies within the impact certain scenes carry, images that are burned into the memory the instant they are witnessed. These are the kinds of images that one can replay in their mind just as if it’s like watching the movie. In “Raging Bull” this scene comes after a bout between Sugar Ray Robinson and Jake LaMotta, a legendary rivalry that lasted through the 40’s and 50’s. After the match is over, LaMotta enters Robinson’s corner, bleeding and swollen and reminds the new champion, “You didn’t get me down Ray.” These words define a fight and an entire life, LaMotta was an individual that took out his insecurities and frustrations on others in unforgivable ways, but throughout the film we see how his flaws are understandable. LaMotta more than lived up to his nickname throughout his life, he endured mostly bad elements that never got him down.
Indiana Jones has the hat and whip, Marty McFly has his DeLorean, Scarface has his “little friend” and LaMotta simply has his gloves and a pummeled face, Robert DeNiro’s part in “Raging Bull” goes beyond what a great performance, his role has since become an icon of the last 30 years of American film. Sociologically, DeNiro’s depiction of LaMotta represents some of the best of what every male is taught he should have; uncompromising masculinity, a strict work ethic and the toughness to endure the most testing punishment. LaMotta also represents the worst of what we’re instilled with; seeing our better halves as “possessions”, hard-headed jealously and stubbornness, unchecked temper and bottling up our most intense emotions. One of the hardest scenes to watch comes late in the film when LaMotta finds himself in a Miami jail cell. He punches the walls and pounds his head against the concrete, crying out “Why? Why Why?” It’s not the content that makes us wince, it’s the emotion. There are many ways to pinpoint why Robert DeNiro is one of our most talented actors; this performance is one of them.
“Raging Bull” came second only to “Hoosiers” on a recent list of ESPN’s top sports movies of the last 25 years, and rightfully so. “Hoosiers” is a great sports movie and deserved the top spot; to give “Raging Bull” that honor would pigeonhole the movie. It’s like saying “It’s a Wonderful Life” is a great Christmas film, its quality easily goes beyond that label. The same is true for “Raging Bull” and sports movies, though the film does lend a lot to the way we watch sports films now. Scrosese’s methods when it came to the fight scenes in “Raging Bull” were innovative to the genre and revolutionary to his own personal style, the punches land hard, the camera never leaves the ring, the fighters finish drenched and blood and sweat. We truly understand why Jake LaMotta never used a confessional to exorcise his faults; he used the punishment endured in the boxing ring.It all adds up, there is so much to be found in “Raging Bull” when it comes to why we love the movies.
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link directly to this review at http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=2396&reviewer=338
originally posted: 07/23/04 06:42:53
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USA
14-Nov-1980 (R)
DVD: 08-Feb-2005
UK
N/A (18)
Australia
N/A (M)
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