Maybe Scorsese's Best Film

Rating: Null/10 (24 April 2000)

Images frozen for posterity are many in the history of motion pictures, but only a few encompass the film's meaning in that image. Rocky Balboa's running up the Philadelphia stairs is one such example. Then there is Jake La Motta (Robert De Niro) gracefully shadowboxing in the ring in slow motion while the sad but proud strains of Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana" is playing on the soundtrack. Brute more than man, La Motta's barbarism finds its truest expression in the ring. Here to be less than a man is celebrated not despised. Here La Motta achieves peace. Peace that comes only in the ring, however. La Motta brings chaos and despair to his loved ones outside of it. "Raging Bull" charts Jake La Motta's journey toward finding peace outside of his arena. It is one of the most honest portrayals of redemption ever produced for the screen.
Scorsese teamed up with Paul Schrader, whom he had worked with on the archetypal film "Taxi Driver," to work on the screenplay. What shows are two storytellers at the top of their craft and Martin Scorsese reaching maturity.
The film opens with a paunchy, out-of-shape, La Motta going over his monologue for the evening's performance. He recites his trademark rhyme ad dictum: "So give me a stage where this Bull here can rage/ And though I can fight, I'd much rather recite...That's entertainment! That's entertainment."
Then we flash backward to a healthy, lean, and hungry La Motta in his quest for the Middleweight Title. Helping him along is his put-upon brother and manager, Joey (Joe Pesci). La Motta constantly badgers Joey about his wanting to be a heavyweight and having "small hands." To prove that he truly is a man, La Motta provokes Joey into hitting him. We see that Jake La Motta is insecure about his masculinity. What reaffirms it in La Motta's are his boxing and abrasive behavior.
One of the most commendable features about the film is the progression of success for La Motta and the regression of his home life. This escalates when La Motta meets his second wife, Vickie (Cathy Moriarty). Vickie, as portrayed by Moriarty, is a vision of incredible erotic beauty and this fuels jealousy in La Motta whenever she is around other men. He loses both his wife and his brother because of his jealousy and insecurity.
If this sounds like a depressing movie it most certainly is. But one of the points the movie makes is that when a person is at their lowest point, understanding comes, and then the potential for change can happen. That is where the power of the film lies, not in the self-destructive behavior of La Motta, but in the efforts he takes to save himself.
I mentioned before that Scorsese reached full maturity here. That maturity comes by way of the care he places in his filmmaking and storytelling. To Scorsese's credit he does not mince meat (but then again, when has he?) on his subject's repulsiveness. La Motta is a lout, a creep, insecure, childish, brutal, cruel, but also tender, vulnerable, and human.
I cannot say enough about the hallucinations that make up the boxing scenes. With the film shot almost entirely in black-and-white, the boxing sequences make full effect of the contrast and lighting. Strange animal noises are heard during the matches, reinforcing the barbaric nature of the contest. When La Motta loses his belt to Sugar Ray Robinson, the Catholicism-drenched Scorsese films it as La Motta's crucifixion. Robinson raises his fist on high like a passing of judgment. Finally, La Motta spreads his arms and welcomes the flurry of attacks in surrender, his blood spilling everywhere. After his defeat, La Motta still stands. "You didn't knock me down, Ray."
Joe Pesci went on to become a Scorsese staple after his fine portrayal of Joey La Motta. Joey suffers at the hands of his brother throughout the film, yet he still stands by him until Jake finally snaps. But the insecurity and jealousy that fester in Jake make their presence known in Joey as well as he repeatedly slams a car door on one of Vickie's prospective adulterers.
Cathy Moriarty had her first role as the seductive Vickie. Blonde and beautiful, shy and alluring, the audience can see why La Motta is drawn to this vision and determined to keep her even at the cost of losing her. Moriarty captures Vickie's impending sense of being a prisoner as she becomes quieter and more subservient as a wife than she ever was as La Motta's flirtatious girlfriend. She also shows strength as a mother as she fights to regain some semblance of sanity for her children. It is a heartbreaking performance.
De Niro captured the Academy Award for Best Actor as Jake La Motta. If ever there was a definition for acting in the "Method," De Niro's performance fits the bill. In his scenes as the retired and gluttonous La Motta, De Niro actually gained 200 pounds. The only thing prosthetic is his nose. It is doubtful if an actor will ever go to such pains for a performance again.
I'd have to say that this and "The Last Temptation of Christ" are the two most personal films of Scorsese. He even adds a nice coda from the Bible if there is any doubt to its story of redemption. "...Whether this man forgave my sins, I know not. I only know that once I was blind and now I can see."
The bull sees. Raging Bull ****