Raging Bull

Ties That Blind

Order a Wifebeater! from Amazon

Raging Bull director Martin Scorsese probably had the Eye of the Tiger secretly (?) going on right after the release of the first Rocky movie. (The zoo is closed for now until further notice.) With this robust delivery, Scorsese senses fruity opportunity with a masterful scent picker and capitalizes on it via solid skills, offering a Larger Than Life movie collage about professional boxer Jake LaMotta. The Real Deal Raging Bull who maintains the reputation of having the best chin the boxing ring ever saw to date, regardless the fact that he retired from the squared circle in 1954.

Though - logically - plenty of time went by since then, the period in question could not produce a fighter with such immense tenaciousness and punishment resistance as The Raging Bull possessed and sported in the ring. His autobiography hit stores in 1970, while Rocky hits movie theaters in 1976. A funny thing indeed, that makes you wonder. Did Sylvester Stallone read the LaMotta book and invented Rocky to start off his career? I tend to think that he did, though I did not found information on this via first try. Yet, as of today, I am not obsessed enough to feel that my theory would need further solidification. Face it: my hypothesis makes semi-perfect - bonus oxymoron - sense, and probably catches Sly red handed. A shame that it took 31 years, even bigger shame/delight though that the Rocky movies remain pure, timeless classics of lightweight entertainment, regardless. As for this suggested inspirational context goes though, please contribute, in case you know something Sly does or told about this in interviews OR at highly confidential meetings between secret societies.

Let us scrutinize where this suggestion led to in the late '70s, early '80s. Suspicion: Sly reads the LaMotta book somewhere between its release date and 1976, AND recognizes what a superb buildup it would weigh in as if presented on the Big Screen. As Stallone said, he never would have forgiven for himself if he would let anyone else play the lead instead of him. A staggering success, Rocky claims about 1 million bucks to reach final form and produces 117 million at the offices. Now, can you blame Martin Scorsese for giving you the

Original Rocky

with Robert DeNiro in the lead in 1980? Hell, you can not. But the phrase "Original Rocky" better weigh in as an exceptionally fruity keyword, I am telling you THAT, Sly!

Raging Bull is heavily based on LaMotta's autobiography, a work I never read personally, though I suppose it is safe to say that Scorsese's cinematic interpretation is a faithful one - he could hardly want to enrage the Bull, after all. The film is black and white, a presentational choice which gives a strong oldshcool appeal to the output, thus the resultant image flow is unleashed as an account of the backstage - more precisely, "beyond the ring" - life of LaMotta. The dude was a highly traditional individual in his prime days, the period which of course was characterized by his boxing career and the corresponding, rigorous training regime. Raging Bull is a special mixture that delivers slight, yet evident MOB appeals, now-hilarious fights and a focal family drama, as LaMotta's Italian origins claims both the very integral adherence and emotional reliance on the family unit, let alone the famous Italian temper which the Bull possesses an immense amount of.

I tend to think that it is OK to regard the piece as a strong effort in each of these aspects, especially since the precisely presented persona of the protagonist is solidified even further by totally intact supportive performances. These additions come to you through LaMotta's wife and his brother. Let me tell you that Cathy Moriarty does not just render a woman of the era, Cathy Moriarty renders THE woman of the era. Though she was 20 during the shooting, the film informs you of an age of 15 by the time a married LaMotta sets his eyes on her, later deciding to unite with her instead and establish a family together with strange little space-time occurrences called children included in it.

Joe Pesci is in his prime in this output, he gives you a quite believable, fervent Italian minor stallion, and let me tell you that a minor Italian stallion will NEVER realize that he IS one, so actually he puts up a highly reliable, integral display of a mildly frustrated, yet, nevertheless strong and honest personality. Notice the picture below to face and digest some major convince power.



The Pants At The Armpit Style! Classic.

LaMotta had his bitter rivalries in the boxing ring, the most memorable of those though is evidently against the long period of mutual competition between him and Sugar Ray Robinson. Those were the days when professional boxing bouts were scheduled for 15 rounds, and it is certainly not a big surprise that the film will reach a certain peek moment to precisely account their Final and Concluding Face-Off in the squared circle. By precision I mean the little subtleties, like Scorsese implements the exact same advertisement the audience could see on the TV screen when watched the broadcast - a focal reason of this latter condition is simple: segments of the actual bout are implemented in the film's fabric. If you are curious of this classic event, you can check the entire match out at YouTube by following THIS particular link.

Naturally, the cinematic fights are rendered with DeNiro in it. A little, yet necessary leap-forward we committed, thus now is the time to step back. As outlined, Raging Bull is a family-, career-, and personality drama, one that weighs in intact in all these regards. The delicate setups you will see do concern well developed and masterfully presented dialogs that have a sharp focus on LaMotta's increasing degrees of paranoia as time progresses. The film gives totally intact, authentic, easily approachable personality dramas between the three major protagonists, meaning DeNiro, Cathy Moriarty and Pesci, who is both brother and manager of the focal character. These charismatic personalities do render and account the era they live in with exceptional convince power. A New Yorker Italian, or an Italian New Yorker, LaMotta tolerates no spots on his honor as a respectable Italian, neither on his record as a professional boxer. Solo definer of the Testosterone Taurus, DeNiro gives you this character in a flawless, flamboyant fashion. Yet, not everyone handles, dare I say, tolerate success soberly.



LaMotta was tolerating it rather well though, as long as things were going HIS way. Various, career related frustrations though turn him towards the worst direction a mind can conceive: he starts to behave like a man with some quality borderline personality disorder, accusing Vicky that she surely flirts around with guys while he is away in the ring. She surely MUST have some secrets. Cathy Moriarty is a wonderful choice for this role, I absolutely dig the way she talks, her calm voice and stuff related, let alone the corresponding, similarly sober personality that radiates inner beauty and registers as proper dignity. Not to mention the outer beauty which is not an accomplishment to spot instantly. Missing on it would be, though. No wonder LaMotta recognized these traits AND had the assumption - quite correctly, as we can see - that other, though highly hideous males do recognize these powerful feminine qualities, as well.

The moment where LaMotta is blatantly wrong though is that he can not "properly digest" and accept the fact that Vicky LOVES him - from a certain point on, he emotionally abuses and hurts the woman all the time. You know the usual male drill: "WHERE were you? With WHOM? WHY did you go there? Did ANYONE see you with THEM? You KNOW they will TALK!"

These unfortunate behavioral tendencies exhibited by the era's LaMotta even give you the impression that he might even pose as a danger to others or himself virtually all the time. Expect fog sleeping, maybe - just maybe. From a point on you are invited to form your impression that he is not just "soberly jealous" of his beautiful wife, he instead seems to produce delusional thinking that forces him to seek proofs of sins committed: if unsuccessful, then he is sure that it's just the result of a well developed and accomplished cover-up effort. Strong and famous, there are sections in LaMotta's true self that are simply not worth opposing against, not for him, neither for the opposer's sake. At the boxing bouts, LaMotta just releases Carl Jung's Animal, that is all. According to Jung, the Animal is the part that you prefer to hide from everyone, but still, IS part of you. LaMotta's animal is not just revealed, in fact, it dominates the personality. This is the part where women, man, society and pretty much all else beyond that do hand the piece of paper with "ERROR!" written on it. After he have seen Scorsese's work, the real LaMotta asked the real Vicky LaMotta if he was really as a horrid person as the film depicts him, Vicky told him this:
"- You were worse."



As a primal source of the drama that is about to unfold, LaMotta's jealousness is superbly presented by DeNiro and reacted upon with initial calm helplessness by his wife - as for the question concerning how and where these emotional assaults will unravel to - that remains to be seen when you decide to check out this classic, which is, by the way, the mere reason I give you this here review. The boxer does not satisfy with the persistent accusations towards his wife, though. A focal turning point in the buildup is signified by LaMotta's decently paranoid invention that surely his wife must have an intimate, secretive relationship with his brother. Sounds crazy enough yet? And, mind you that all these elements are based on real life events that have happened for real. LaMotta, you surely have the Balls of a Raging Bull, too bad sometimes you decided to borrow it's mind after it undergone immense sedation, as well.

Either way, it is absolutely safe to say that Scorsese's output scores big time in the drama department, these masterful, timeless performances do give you a precise rendition of an era that could hardly relate to the implausible- and, to be honest, sometimes absolutely misplaced passion LaMotta walked, fought and lived with by those days. No era could soberly relate to that. No human could.



As previously hinted, fight scenes, I think, are highly hilarious in Raging Bull. Come on. Get real here. Any head eating in the punches that do contact with the power implied here would explode like a water melon. Yes, you guessed that right: an exploded head even has a truly big chance to cause a consecutive knockout of its previous proprietor. I think that the times that went by since the release of the output are scarce excuses for this fighting method. To be honest, I laughed my personal sitorgan off and I am ready to laugh off someone else's, too, at the latest Rocky installment, Rocky Balboa. Oh God, these directors can be lunatic overkillers sometimes.

If you throw punches with 24234324234 kiloton of power All The Time, then you NEVER throw a punch with 24234324234 power. I think it is similar to drawing in this regard. If every single bit is detailed on a drawing - then nothing is detailed on it. I guarantee you that you will fail to feel excitement during the fight scenes Raging Bull delivers, I even dare say that they progress ineptly, silly, weightlessly. Truly. What you get is this: some dude starts to hit the other in the face by sheer, raw power. Connects on 14-15 consecutive occasions. Did I suggest to get real? In that particular reality, a boxer's face would turn to an unrecognizable, abused meat pie after the sixth of such impacts. The blood effects Scorsese relied on are even more staggering. Staggeringly weak and laughable, that is. Some chocolate syrup was used, by the way. Mind you that while I tend to remain devoted to these shortcomings I still suspect and even described, the sheer image quality of the fights do remain flawless and blatantly beautiful, regardless of the brutal nature of the subject matter. Indeed, the fight scenes in Raging Bull are so brutal that you have little if any chance to relate to them seriously. Yet, the work processes and ideas to create them are very maturely planned and precisely executed. A strange, rare correlation.

The huge amount of work to create the fight scenes does rely on a whole series of subtleties and interesting decisions: animal groans and breathings, guns were used to generate sound effects, for example. Scorsese even relied on quite cunning symbolism when he chose the proportions of the rings. Sequences of amazing precision and devotion, yet, the substance they describe is haunted by - in my opinion - both effect crave and a stable misunderstanding of human stamina. I realize I might sound like a sitorgan here, some would even say that I do piss on an altar. This is not my intention, absolutely not. Some part of me says that "serious" fight sequences would benefit the movie even further, yet the buildup of Raging Bull is way beyond the need and categories of improvement.

Yet, I must confess: if I am free to regard the fight sequences as mere supportive elements to reflect on and account LaMotta's only place to release and satisfy his True Self: THEN the solution Scorsese relied on is: more acceptable. I dare say this phrase though, because Scorsese did not seem to make an evident decision. To me: Raging Bull's fights are not serious enough, and they are not symbolic enough, either. They are just ineptly brutal, and, thus, brutally inept, in the long run. Some interesting condition yet: by the time Scorsese shot Raging Bull, he had massive drug problems, and was pretty convinced that this will be his last movie, then he will probably check out and move to another plane of existence. So he gave the green light on anything that was brutal, and main agenda was to remain in the ring all the time.

Let us forget about the fight sequences though, as, apart from this slight flaw I found in the film, Raging Bull is evident, timeless classic nevertheless that cites invaluable advices and inherent wisdom about how success can twist one into something that might be way more sorrowful than a certain period without success. To me, Raging Bull tells that though success is always ready to be invoked if asked subtly and without doubts, being ready for it is much more important than success itself. And here is why: YOU have success only if it is really YOU who has it.



If you enjoyed this here article, check out my comic: Planetseed
If you are to circulate magnificently pleasant vibrations: Buy me Beer