Raging Bull (1980)

This biography directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro was a painful downward spiral of once great boxer-Jake LaMotta. We follow LaMotta from the time he’s starting out-already abusively threatening toward his first wife and aggressive towards his brother. When LaMotta meets 15-year-old Vicki and falls in love he seems to become even more self destructively paranoid. Often beating her and screaming about how she was having affairs when he had no real evidence. After a lifetime’s close relationship with brother/mentor Joey, Jake beats the pulp out of him based on an incorrect inkling Joey was sleeping with Vicki. This shatters the relationship. During his last fight versus Sugar Ray Robinson, we watch as LaMotta allows himself to be beaten viciously without falling to the ground. His pride keeps him standing and he lets Sugar Ray know that he never knocked him out. Years later, it appears Jake has his life together when he opens up a club called ‘Jake LaMotta’. Unfortunately, after running into trouble with the law and Vicki leaving with the kids, Jake finds his life in shambles. We watch as he punches a cement wall of a cell, punishing himself. He continues with a seemingly unsuccessful stream of stand-up comedy. The last scene features LaMotta in his dressing room before a show warming up as he did before boxing matches. It was a heartbreakingly pathetic scene. At this point, everything has fallen apart for him and he’s reverting back to what he knows. We saw how his violence and uncontrollable temper pushed him to a point where he could trust no one but himself, leaving him without love and family.

The fight scenes alone took the crew ten weeks to film and it’s obvious why. Technically, the scenes were crazy. The punches, the crowd, the sound effects and physicality of the actors is remarkable. Once again, De Niro had an outstanding performance. One of the best acting jobs I’ve ever seen. In the jail cell having a meltdown and at the end preparing for his show were both gut-wrenching. Not to mention De Niro having to shift his weight and appearance during the filming. Incredible devotion to a character and obvious submersion in the story is evident from De Niro’s performance. Cathy Moriarty, who plays Vicki, was just nineteen years old filming this, manages to appear as if she really is an exhausted wife and mother that ages at least twenty years. Her performance was on par with De Niro, especially knowing how young she was. Joe Pesci, who played Joey, had unbelievable chemistry with De Niro as his brother. Their energies together was interesting to watch and they work together nicely.

I was impressed with this film that I have heard so much about and excited to see my third De Niro movie. I had never really thought much about De Niro despite his still very much active acting career. Now I know that he deserves to be the most respected actor of today. His work in all three films have seemed like they would require total submersion in the character and all of the characters have been so diverse despite the films all being filmed just a year or two apart. Many one dimensional actors will play the same kind of role in different films but De Niro can do it all and flawlessly at that.