Scorsese Shines

Rating: 9/10 (4 January 2018)

Scorsese brilliantly crafted this stunning film. From the opening titles to the very last scene where Robert De Niro restates Marlon Brando's famous line from the 1954 Best Picture winning epic, On the Waterfront. When that line is said, the entire movie rushed back into my mind, as if Scorsese wrapped it all up in a bundle and handed it to me. The line was not only fitting for the movie, but for the scene itself. The last scene sets up how Jake LaMotta might just go somewhere, as he clearly does for a movie was made on him. The saying of this quote had me in tears, as it really put an emphasis on a waste of a man's life.
I also loved how it was shot in black and white. As in Schindler's List, the usage of this feature really dramatized the effects used and the entirety of the sadness depicted from Scorsese's masterful interpretation and the events that were happening. As I have always said, in black-and-white movies, there are some things that can be seen that cannot be seen in color films. The acting seems to soak in more, and the intentions of the director and writer are more intense. Possibly, it's because we see in "black-and-white", and this brings us to another reality that only we can see.
Scorsese's shots are very clean, and use his typical dynamics. When LaMotta is losing to Sugar Robinson about half way through the movie, LaMotta sits down, and Scorsese, as if moving the camera himself with his hands, zooms up to LaMotta from the other side of the boxing ring. It's beautifully perfect and holds a clean and steady shot that lasts in my memory.
The writing for the film was exceptional, and it was really well crafted. The dialogue was believable and was not as heavy as let's say, Woody Allen's 1977 romantic comedy, Annie Hall. The film held to itself, speaking only for itself, and there has yet to be another movie like it to date, except for as I stated earlier, Schindler's List.
Robert De Niro's acting was superb in this film in his role as Jake LaMotta. Not only did he master the enormous weight gain he needed for the part, but he also mastered the intensity of the role. In the scene where LaMotta is thrown in jail, the character starts talking bad to the officers, then to himself. He then gets up off of the bench he was sitting on and continually punches the stone wall, not only with his fists but with his head too. He then sits down again with his face half lighted. De Niro's amazing emotion conquest in this scene exerts the power an actor can have over a character.