Raging Bull (1980)
Can’t control the bull in or out of the ring.
Presentation:
Martin Scorsese always manages to find actors that can bring the characters to life. This isn’t particularly hard because he utilizes the vibrant DeNiro and Joe Pesci duo per usual. To be honest, you know exactly what you’re getting from them and it’s predictable. Something about the violence and banter makes it hard to take the story seriously and loses its realism as a biographical tale. This is also because of the cinematic boxing scenes, which aren’t realistic but have a visceral surrealism. No wonder it won awards for editing. The film starts as an up and coming tale of glory and falls into a lull despite the incredible boxing. It gets better over time extending into psychological territory of what these boxers mentally had to go through in this corrupt industry.
Conclusion:
I’m generally not a fan of DeNiro because I feel he is the same character in nearly every film. But in this film he does do something special, becoming unrecognizable in his transformation. He even manages to draw sympathy despite being a very unsympathetic character. The boxing cinematography alone is worth the watch for this film. It’s not a departure from his future films so if you like Goodfellas, The Irishman and New Yorker banter you should enjoy this but it’s not better. It’s incredible to see how polished Scorsese’s voice was even in 1980, but it’s simply earlier in his career and doesn’t hold a spark outside of the technical artistry.
Recommendations
Thematic literature enters the ring.