Raging Bull: A Review (Review #2110)

RAGING BULL

Boxing is known as "the sweet science". Neither sweet nor scientific would be used to describe Jake LaMotta, the subject of Raging Bull. This portrait of a brawler in and outside of the ring is a brilliant piece of filmmaking, with standout performances all around.

In 1964, Jake LaMotta (Robert De Niro) is a heavyset master of ceremonies pumping himself up for a performance. We then go back to 1941. Here, LaMotta is a muscular figure, the Bronx Bull knocking down all middleweight opponents. 

One person who knocks him out though is young Vickie (Cathy Moriarty). With a sultry voice to match her sultry body, Vickie drives Jake wild with desire. His loyal brother and manager Joey (Joe Pesci) reminds Jake that he is married. Jake, however, will not be denied and he eventually wins Vickie over, first as his mistress then as his second wife.

Jake is a pugilist par excellence. Despite this, he keeps failing to become middleweight champion even though he clearly defeated such figures as Sugar Ray Robinson (Johnny Barnes). Jake fights brilliantly inside the ring. The problem is that he fights stupidly outside the ring. Perpetually jealous, he is wildly suspicious of any man whom Vickie so much as bumps into, let alone talks to. Jake also does not want help from the Mob to get him a shot at the title despite Joey's awareness of the need to. 

Jake eventually goes against his own interests again and again. He agrees to take a dive for mob boss Tommy Como (Nicholas Colasanto) but does such a poor job of it that he's booed out of the ring and suspended by the boxing commission. He becomes unhinged at Vickie talking to any man, going so far as to accuse Joey of having sex with her. He does make it to the championship (the price of throwing the match) but this is a hollow win. Jake loses Joey. He gains massive weight post-retirement. He runs his nightclub poorly to where he ends up in jail for allowing underage girls in. He loses Vickie and his kids. Finally, he finds a second act as an MC, making quips while introducing strippers and later reciting Shakespeare.

Jake LaMotta is not a good man. In particular, his rage and abusive nature should put people off. However, Raging Bull shows us that as he says of himself near the end, "I'm not an animal". LaMotta is driven, intense, hard. These are all qualities that made him an excellent fighter. They also were the qualities that wrecked him when he was not boxing.

As a side note, him saying, "I'm not an animal" coincidentally echoes another 1980 black-and-white biopic. This exact sentiment was expressed in The Elephant Man. That film featured a physically disfigured man with a noble soul. Raging Bull featured a physically powerful athlete with a disfigured soul. Yet, I digress.

Raging Bull is one of Robert De Niro's finest hours as an actor. He makes Jake LaMotta into this fierce force of nature. He is able to show a surprisingly tender side when with Vickie. De Niro also shows us the shattered man after he takes a dive. Crying uncontrollably, he keeps asking himself and those around him the same question: why did he do it. We marvel at the bouts that LaMotta goes through. We also feel a mix of disbelief and sadness seeing this brawler turn into a de facto lounge act.

Cathy Moriarty had a stellar turn as Vickie, Jake's obscure object of desire. She has a sultry, low voice and beautiful figure. Moriarty also shows Vickie to be loving and surprisingly tolerant of her man until even she got fed up. Like Moriarty, Joe Pesci received an acting Oscar nomination for his turn as the loyal but put-upon Joey. His work with De Niro is absolutely fantastic, each playing off each other so well. They are similar in their volcanic tempers, yet different in Joey staying loyal both in his marriage and his relationship. Unlike Jake, Joey understands that talent alone can't get Jake to the top. 

Martin Scorsese films Raging Bull so beautifully. He does make boxing poetic. He has clever moments, such as how Vickie kicking her feet in the pool matches the drumming we hear. This is indicative of how brilliant Thelma Schoonmaker's Oscar-winning editing is. The various fights also range in style and appearance, no small feat given how many we saw. 

For me, the best example revealing the kind of man Jake LaMotta was captured near the end of Raging Bull. Desperate for money to try and buy himself out of a criminal charge, he storms into his now-estranged wife's home, grabs his championship belt and forces the various diamonds out of it. Going to a pawn shop, he is told that the diamonds are not as much as LaMotta was asking for. Had he brought the entire belt in undamaged, he is told, Jake could have had more than enough cash for it. 

Paul Schrader and Mardick Martin's adaptation of LaMotta's autobiography may not have intended it so. However, to me it shows that Jake LaMotta did not see the true worth of things. He saw the small parts and not the big picture. He saw Vickie talking to men, not her love for Jake. He saw Joey "selling him out" to the Mob, not his brother doing all he could to get Jake a shot at the title. He saw the diamonds. He did not see the belt.

Raging Bull stands tall not just in sports films or biopics. It stands tall among some of cinema's finest achievements. 

1922-2017

DECISION: A+