Raging Bull

“Raging Bull” (1980) is not a so much a film about boxing but more of a story about a psychotically jealous, sexually insecure borderline homosexual, caged animal of a man, who encourages pain and suffering in his life as almost a form of reparation. Martin Scorsese’s masterpiece of a film drags you down into the seedy filth stenched world of former middleweight boxing champion Jake “The Bronx Bull” LaMotta. Masterfully he paints the picture of a beast whose sole drive is not boxing but an insatiable obsessive jealously over his wife and his fear of his own underling sexuality. The movie broke new ground with its brutal unadulterated no-holds-bard look at the vicious sport of boxing by bringing the camera into the ring, giving the viewer the most realistic, primal, and brutal boxing scenes ever filmed. With blood and sweat spraying, flashbulbs’ bursting at every blow Scorsese gives the common man an invitation into the square circle where only the hardest trained gladiators dare to venture.

The movie opens just as it ends, the camera pans down to the pavement revealing a sign outside the Barbizon Plaza Theater: “An Evening with Jake LaMotta Tonight 8:30.” The film then cuts to a punched out overweight shot of LaMotta babbling a barely coherent rhyming rant mixing Shakespeare with the infernal jabber of an half illiterate has been boxer. Quickly the scene shifts from backstage of a nightclub to a close up of a younger LaMotta receiving repeated jabs to the face. The bold white title card “Jake La Motta 1941” jumps out against the stark grey images of the match. LaMotta between rounds sits in the corner surrounded by his trainer, manager and cut man giving the impression of lion tamers antagonizing a corned animal by telling him he is “out pointed” and “You’re gonna have to knock him out.” When the fight continues LaMotta crouches like a coiled snake boring his way into a barrage of punches only to explode in a flurry of flashbulbs sending his opponent to the canvas. With a bombardment of hard stuck lefts, LaMotta sends Jimmy Reeves on a return trip to the mat. Again, in the final round a bloody pulverized Reeves lies pinned to the floor only to be saved by the bell after the count reaches nine. LaMotta then proceeds to strut around the ring proudly wearing a leopard skin robe with hands held high w...

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...estructive habits that plagued his entire life. He seems to finally realize and come to grips with all the foolish mistakes he made throughout his life. Scorsese cameos himself as a stagehand announcing that Jake has five minutes till stage. He clips his tie, and begins to warm up with shadowboxing as he did before all of his matches. He grunts “Go get ‘em, champ.” All you are left with is a shot of a solitary empty mirror. The final title honors Jakes new found salvation and understanding:” once I was blind and now I can see.”

“Raging Bull” is the most brutal and painful portrait of a man I have ever seen. You almost feel sorry for this animal of a wife beater whose sexual inadequacy and paralyzing jealousy drive him past the point of insanity. Jake LaMotta prided himself for not being knocked down in the ring. Even when being crucified by” Sugar” Ray Robinson you wonder why wont this fool just save himself and go down. By the end of the film you begin to get a sense of what was really driving him in the ring. Was it his animal instinct or his immovable pride? No, he was so deeply wounded inside that it hurt far too much to ever let the physical pain stop even for just a second.