Raging Bull: Jake Vs. LaMotta

Entry Number: 12

Film: Raging Bull

Year Of Release: 1980

Director: Martin Scorsese

Rating: ?

*Warning: Major spoilers*

If you haven't, go watch this movie first, and then come back to this review.

One of the things that has always fascinated me the most about Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull, a biographic film about boxing sensation Jake LaMotta and his slow descent into self-destruction, is that one of the key players in the film's production was Jake LaMotta himself. This is quite surprising, as LaMotta is portrayed as a self-depricating fool that can't keep himself from acting on his impulses. Why would LaMotta agree to portray himself in this way? Well, this is revealed at the very end of the film with a quote that is so powerful that I have still not gotten over it after three viewings.

For those who don't know, Raging Bull was the passion project of director Martin Scorsese and actor Robert De Niro. It was released to mixed reviews, but in recent times has been aknowleged as a classic and one of Scorsese's best. 

This is probably because of Robert De Niro's towering performance as LaMotta. Ever since I saw Raging Bull for the first time, I have called De Niro's performance as the greatest in cinema history. When asked why De Niro is so great in this film, most would probably say it's because of how well De Niro portrays LaMotta's anger issues, or De Niro's absolutely insane dedication to method acting, but I would say that's missing the point. You have to understand that Raging Bull is really a movie built around De Niro's towering performance, and Raging Bull isn't a movie about a very angry man, but more a man who is deeply insecure. No matter if LaMotta is in the ring, in his house, out on the streets, in a restaurant or backstage in a club, there is always a deep insecurity behind his eyes. 

This is introduced towards the very beginning of the film. The film starts with LaMotta absolutely killing his opponent Jimmy Reeves in the ring. The fight ends, and both the viewer and LaMotta think that the winner has to be Jake, but then it is quite shockingly announced that the winner is Jimmy Reeves. We see shock on LaMotta's face, but then he starts waving his arms up in the air like he was the winner, probably to deny the fact that he just lost.

When he comes home, LaMotta starts yelling and arguing with his wife for no reason. His brother and manager Joey walks in and calms down LaMotta. Joey asks LaMotta what's wrong, and LaMotta responds after a few seconds of uncomfortable silence: "My hands." So, what we have here is the world's biggest boxer afraid that his hands aren't strong enough. It's this moment that it becomes clear that LaMotta is having trouble living up to his image of a big, strong, powerful and masculine man who never loses.

A great example of this is a very short sequence where Jake fights Joey during practice and a bunch of Joey's friends come for a short while and watch. Scorsese cuts inbetween the fighting and Joey's friends who we hear mocking Jake- and Joey's fighting before leaving. Now, you can read this as something that is actually happening, but I feel what is really happening here (as suggested by the editing) is that these comments from Joey's friends is just what Jake is imagining that they are saying.

Before I continue to explore the character that is Jake LaMotta, let me just take a quick detour to appreciate the editing. As much as this is a film centered around De Niro's transcendent performance, it's also very much a film that is told through editing. The film was edited by the all-time great Thelma Schoonmaker, who has been Martin Scorsese's go-to editor for ages. Her work here isn't only her greatest ever, but also arguably the greatest in cinema history. She really tells the whole story for you in the first 5 minutes by cutting from an overweight man receiting his lines in the back of a club to a strong man murdering his opponent in the boxing ring, putting "Jake LaMotta, 1964" under the overweight man and "Jake LaMotta, 1941" under the boxer. If you want to see good editing, see this movie.

So far, we have established that LaMotta is having trouble living up to his legendary status as this big, strong, masculine man, something which fittingly brings us to his biggest insecurity: his sexual frustration, something which is represented in his relationship and eventual marriage to Vicki. In his first scenes with Vicki, you can clearly notice how awkward LaMotta is, especially when he is trying to make her join him in the bedroom. There is also one infamously uncomfortable scene where LaMotta is about to have sex with Vicki, but then he leaves because he "has to go practice", even though it is made quite clear that he is just too insecure to have sex.

Jake's frustration becomes much worse after a beautiful (albeit devastating once you know how the story goes) montage of Jake and Vicki that reveals that they are now married. We get a scene of Jake and Vicki going to the club and once again through Thelma Schoonmaker's stellar editing, we are told that Jake is suspicious that Vicki is cheating on him with other men. Schoonmaker cuts inbetween Jake and close-ups of Vicki greeting other men at the club with kisses. He almost tips over the ledge when Vicki calls one man good looking.

This suspicion eventually grows even worse, culminating in Jake believing the man Vicki is cheating on him with is Joey, his brother, which results in an infamous outburst where Jake outlashes his anger on Vicki before breaking into Joey's house and severely beating him infront of his kids and wife. I feel this is a scene that properly brings us to what I feel is the film's central theme: Self-destruction.

Raging Bull opens with a hauntingly beautiful slow-motion shot of Jake warming up in the ring by shadow-boxing, something I feel serves as a great introduction to this film's biggest metaphor, that being the ring as a representation of Jake's mind. Wether he actually is in it or not, Jake always is in the ring in his head and he needs to find an opponent to lash out his anger on. Now, you can say that this opponent is both Vicki, Joey and every other person he can lash out on, but if this opening shot is a look inside LaMotta's mind, then you will notice that he is the only person there, and therefore he is the only possible opponent. So by lashing out his anger towards various other people throughout the movie, he is attacking himself. If I haven't made it clear yet, Jake genuinely hates himself for his insecurities. De Niro puts equal amounts of insecurity behind LaMotta's eyes as he does self-hatred for those insecurities. It's Jake versus LaMotta. 

It's kind of interesting how Jake LaMotta's eventual rise and fall can be played alongside his three fights with Sugar Ray Robinson, further confirming that the ring is a metaphor. The more LaMotta's mental state declines, the more his physical state does. In his first match, LaMotta dominates and wins. In his second match, LaMotta does dominate, but Robinson still wins. The third and last match is the most memorable one (and really just one of the most memorable moments of the film). This match happens when LaMotta is at his lowest. The whole match is basically LaMotta letting Robinson dominate him. It climaxes when LaMotta angers Robinson by telling Robinson how he never got him down, which results in an anger outburst so violent that you can literally see the blood spilling. Again we see LaMotta angering others only to hurt himself in the end.

So, what does all this self-loathing culminate to? Well, we are basically told that from the opening cut. Joey abandons Jake, Jake quits boxing to start a comedy club, Vicki divorces him and takes the kids, La Motta's club goes out of business and La Motta spends the rest of his life performing at small bars and clubs.

The film's final scene is a rather heartbreaking one, where we see a barely reconizable Jake LaMotta sit backstage of a club, getting ready to perform for what is probably a crowd so small you can barely call it a crowd. He then recites the famous monologue said by Marlon Brando in the 1954 classic On The Waterfront. In the film, Marlon's character Terry, a promising boxer whose career is now probably long gone, says to his brother Charley: "You don't understand; I could have had class. I could have been a contender. I could have been somebody. Instead of a bum. Which is what I am, let's face it. It was you, Charley." Basically, the scene is Terry blaming his lost potential on Charley. In Raging Bull, Jake LaMotta, a former boxer, says these exact words to himself in the mirror. LaMotta is blaming himself for how horrible his life has become. And before going on stage, he utters these words: "Go get 'em, champ." Still, after all these years, LaMotta is still in the ring.

Now, I could end the review here, but then I would be missing the most important part. After this, we get a quote taken out of the bible, a quote which ends with the sentence: "Once I was blind and now I can see." Why end a film like this with a quote like that? Well, when I said that La Motta spent the rest of his days performing comedy at clubs and bars, I was kind of lying, as after the events portrayed in Raging Bull, he would fittingly go on to be one of the main minds behind Raging Bull. The reason for Robert De Niro's towering performance as Jake LaMotta was that he was actually trained up for the role by Jake LaMotta himself. And it's therefore that I like to imagine these last words as coming from LaMotta. It's him reflecting on his past life and saying that back then, he was blind. He didn't realize how much he was ruining his life for others and himself. But now, he can finally see the horrible choices he made.

Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull very much serves as a reminder about the horrible things self-loathing does to one. At times, it is hard to not be angry at yourself, which is something Scorsese clearly understands, but he still encourages us to try to love ourselves. It's important to sometimes step out of the ring. And therefore, I'm ending this review by asking for a little favour: If you are genuinely unhappy, please talk about it with someone, wether it be a professional, a friend, a parent or someone else you trust. Take care, enjoy life and love yourself.

Rating: 10/10

Next Review: Dr. Strangelove