amazing

Rating: Null/10 (17 November 2003)

I saw this movie when it came out and was amazed by it. But what makes it fascinating for me to see it again these days is that a couple of years later, I got to spend some time with Jake LaMotta, and that certainly affects my viewing of the movie. I met with LaMotta at a small Italian restaurant/bar in Pennsylvania, and my memories of that are 1) the fact that he blew smoke in my face, and everybody's face, constantly; 2) the way the people who ran the place treated him as if he was a god -- I must have heard the word "Champ" a hundred times that night; and 3) the fact that LaMotta, for all his bluster, actually was pretty honest about his life and the movie. He didn't duck anything to do with the movie -- he claimed his real life was even more violent and wild, but he might just have been bragging or, pardon the pun, blowing smoke. And, despite the fact that everyone else felt the need to play Ed McMahon all night when "Champ" was spitting out his one-liners, I can tell you first-hand that his jokes really, really, really are not in the least bit funny.