Raging Bull review

Raging Bull (1980)

Starring: Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, Cathy Moriarty

Directed by: Martin Scorsese

Raging Bull is not just about boxing. It is more about a boxer's life out of the ring. Shot entirely in black and white, the biopic is based on the turbulent career and more turbulent life of the two time middleweight champion Jake La Motta, who was known popularly as Raging Bull. It covers the period 1941-1964, the first half showing his boxing days and the second half his very less glamorous post retirement years.

The film opens in 1964 where an aging and overweight Jake LaMotta (Robert DeNiro) is rehearsing his lines for a standup comedy act. The scene then moves to two decades earlier with JakeLaMotta losing his first major match. Jake’s brother and agent Joey (Joe Pesci) discusses Jake’s chances for a potential shot at the title with one of his mafia connections, Salvy Batts (Frank Vincent). Jake’s family life is in tatters and he constantly has ugly fights with his wife in his Bronx home. Soon, Jake gets acquainted with a 15 year old Vickie (Cathy Moriarty) and gets into a relationship with her, inspite of him being married. Jake defeats Sugar Ray Robinson twice but is denied victory in the second bout due to the judges in a biased decision. He finally gets married to Vickie. Slowly, his love for Vickie becomes an obsession. He is jealously possessive of her and looks suspiciously at every meeting of her with common acquaintances and friends, every contact of hers with a male acquaintance, even as minor as a pat on the back makes him burn within. Even his brother Joey cant escape his jealousy fuelled suspicion. Frequent fights erupt, most of which end in Vickie being abused physically. In one of his fights, which he wins against Tony Janiro ,in front of the local Mob boss, Tommy Como (Nicholas Colsantro) , he brutally smashes Janiro’s face just because he knows that Vickie finds him attractive. Later when discussing Jake’s victory with journalists in Copacabana night club, Joey spots Vickie in the company of Salvy and his friends. He blames and attacks Salvy and injures him badly in a fight which spills out to the street. This puts him in grave danger as he has laid hands on the mafia men. Tommy Como calls both the parties for a truce and tells Joey that Jake will have to throw his next match if he wants to have a shot at the title. Jake does not even put up a fight in the said match, thereby earning him a disqualification. He cries bitterly in the dressing room. Inspite of the disqualification, he goes on to win the middleweight title in his next bout against Marcel Cerdan in 1949.

 

The title win and subsequent success the following year do nothing to quell the jealousy within him about Vickie, his insecurities only become worse. Things come to the worst one day when he blatantly asks Joey whether he and Vickie have something going in between them. Joey leaves disgusted , after telling him that he must concentrate on retaining his title instead of indulging in such repulsive behaviour. Unintimidated, he confronts Vickie asking her the same, to which she replies, being fed up of the nonstop torture that she has relations with Joey and every man in the neighbourhood. Enraged, Jake goes over to Joey's house and beats him up brutally in front of his family. That spells the end of relations between the two brothers. 

 

Jake successfully defends his title against Laurent Dauthille in 1950, a match even his estranged brother Joey watches on TV. After the victory, Jake calls Joey in an attempt to reconcile but is unable to speak anything when Joey answers the phone. Joey shouts a barrage of abuse when he hears nothing at the other end, thinking that it is Salvy who has called. Jake simply puts down the reciever and never makes another attempt to call his brother again. Jake's career slowly starts to go downhill and he loses his title to Sugar Ray Robinson in 1951 in a bloody encounter. In one of the most poignant scenes, a defeated, bloody faced and swollen eyed La Motta smiles at Robinson saying "You were never able to knock me out, Ray".

The scene then cuts to 1956 with a now obese Jake LaMotta, having moved to Miami and now running a nightclub there, posing with Vickie and his three children for a newspaper interview, showcasing a former sportsperson’s happy post retirement life. The reality though is much different. Vickie soon asks for a divorce, telling him that she had been planning it since his retirement. She gets the custody of the children and moves away. Jake then suddenly gets arrested one morning on the charge of introducing underage girls (who had posed as 21 year olds) to other patrons of his nightclub. He is unable to raise enough money for parole, eventually resorting to break his title belt to sell the encrusted gems, only to be told by the pawn shop owner that they would have been more valuable had he left them in the belt. In the most memorable scene from the film ,he bangs his head and pounds the walls of his prison cell, crying and repenting his actions and questioning his misfortune.

The scene then moves to two years later, in 1958.On being freed, he moves back to New York and continues his gigs at various night clubs in addition to being a manager in them. One night, after one of his stand up comedy acts, he sees Joey on the street. He calls out to him and asks him to forgive him, but Joey keeps walking. Finally he catches up with him near his car and hugs him and asks for forgiveness. Joey tells him that he has forgiven him and then drives away without another word.

The viewer then comes back to the first scene in 1964 where La Motta is practicing his lines and in between pondering what might have been had things been a little different and had Joey looked out for him (It is implied that Joey never contacted him again). A stagehand informs that his act is ready and the last shot of the film shows Jake exiting the dressing room, shadowboxing , like the older days.

This isnt a biopic about a sportsman hero because this is anything but a hero. This is a story of a man who inspite of reaching great heights in the ring is pulled down to the abyss because of his abhorrent behaviour outside the ring.

The film was a critical success and emerged as the years best. Martin Scorsese made it to redeem himself after nearly dying of a fatal drug overdose a year earlier. The film is based on La Motta's autobiography Raging Bull:My Story, and a lot of changes were made for the script (The character of Joey is an amalgamation). A few moments into the film and the viewer thinks that he is watching behind the scenes footage of a celebrity. Like his other works, Scorsese does not add a bit of pleasantry but shows realism, with human nature at its ugliest, the usual expletive laced dialogues and grimness  which can be appreciated only by a true cinema fan.

This is arguably Robert DeNiro's best performance and the most physically demanding role any actor can have and he leaves no stone unturned in becoming Jake LaMotta. His stellar performance is made better by the fact that not for a moment does he even try to make the viewer feel any sympathy for or  like the hatred and envy filled character he is playing. Jake LaMotta on screen is the exact opposite to Rocky Balboa . Rocky is a a hero in everyman who we root for in his quest to reach for the sky. For Jake, who already has reached the top, the viewer feels only revulsion and later on pity, when he begins his downward slide. To prepare for the role, DeNiro trained vigourously for weeks under the real Jake LaMotta,even fighting and winning some amateur matches. Production was halted for four months and DeNiro went on a binge eating spree on gourmet food across Europe in order to add nearly 30 kilos to portray the older La Motta. On seeing his performance, the real LaMotta quipped "I never knew that I was that bad". Robert DeNiro deservedly won the  Academy award for the Best Actor for this role where he had, in his usual style erased the difference between reality and celluloid.

Joe Pesci who was an unknown actor at this time, is great as Joey. He very aptly portrays the brother who tries his best to stick with his sibling but puts and end to the whole thing when it gets beyond redemption. It was the begining of his pairing with Rober DeNiro and Martin Scorsese for a decade and a half in films like Goodfellas and Casino. Cathy Moriarty is impressive as Vicky in her debut film. Unfortunately she couldnt live upto the promise she showed in this film.

Watch this great work folks. And remember to cherish your loved ones.


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