Lamotta's Fighting Scenes In The Fight Against Sugar Ray Robinson

For the fighting scenes, the stylistic features parallel LaMotta’s own life at the time of the fight, and thus serves to emphasize particular qualities of it. For example, 31 minutes into the film is the 1943 fight against Sugar Ray Robinson, at this point, LaMotta’s life is at its greatest point, in the previous scene, LaMotta has successfully courted his second wife Vikki. The stylistic features of this scene emphasizes LaMotta’s boxing skill and control over the ring, the mastery of the sport he displays paralleling the quality of life that LaMotta has been able to achieve for himself at that moment. The establishing long shot shows an expanse of white space in the ring as LaMotta in a boxing stance lunges aggressively towards Robinson,

What are you standing for? Come on!” At this point, LaMotta’s self-destructive behaviour has begun to alienate his wife and brother, this behavior, Dickstein argues, is a manifestation of “Jake’s resistance to…anything that smacks of simply getting along.” His ego manifests in self-destructive behaviour again as he stupidly yells at Robinson to “Come on!” This is the only instance in this fight sequence in which Scorsese will use a shot in which we can see LaMotta’s whole body. Unlike in the high-angle establishing shot for the second Robinson fight, this shot is a straight-on angle from a low height, the background here is an expansive black, with the bright stadium lights interrupting it (see figure 2). The expanse of black, gives the shot a deathlike quality, paralleling the destruction of both LaMotta’s career and his personal life. The medium long shot shows LaMotta’s and Robinson’s entire bodies, Robinson’s upright and regally merciful stance starkly contrasts with LaMotta’s slouch and egotistical taunting, emphasizing the fallibility of LaMotta’s insecure

The montage sequence then begins. The shots in the Japanese restaurant include shots of Parker talking animatedly, Zuckerberg staring admiringly, Saverin’s girlfriend laughing, and Saverin passively aggressively making faces of derision. In one edit, Saverin’s girlfriend, laughing because of Parker’s joke turns to Saverin to see his reaction, and in an eye line match shows Parker’s disdain, emphasizing the loneliness of his effort (see figure 3). Along with the music is Saverin’s narration from the litigation room, as he talks in a vindictive and condescending tone about Parker, describing him to the litigator by saying “a psychiatrist would say that he was paranoid.” These elements along with the temporal relations established by the flashback and flash-forward editing, and the Kuleshov effect draws attention to how much Saverin felt slighted by Parker, and within the scope of the film, stands as an example of Zuckerberg’s ineptitude regarding the human consequences of his decisions. The entirety of The Social Network is framed from the two litigation rooms, and in this instance, by increasing the tempo of the cutting so dramatically it serves to blur the