Raging Amalgam

Rating: 9/10 (6 December 2016)

How far can repressed anger get? That's the question that deserved a Martin Scorsese film as an answer. Raging Bull(1980), is a genre mix that transits between Italian neorrealism, semi-documentary, biography and noir. The relation between Jake's personal life and professional career is the great element explored by Scorsese. LaMotta, that unloads all of his efforts to control his wife and brother's lives. It is in the cinematography and in the editing that rests the beauty that makes Raging Bull a grand exhibition of cinema. During the fight scenes, the viscerality and freneticity of the combats are marked by fast cuts, with some perspective of the photographers, abusing of close-ups and blood. As the principal objective from the screenplay is to show Jake's rise to fame and downfall, Scorsese builds the plot so genially, that when the spectator questions why did it all go wrong? He will find only one answer, Jake LaMotta.