![]() We watch as Jake rips the diamonds out of his champion belt, only to learn moments later that the belt would have been worth a fortune intact. His lack of foresight becomes his tragic flaw, and we observe firsthand the pain that comes with this trait. At heart, he is harmless, but he lacks the introspection to prevent his own outbursts. ![]() The character of Jake LaMotta is an innocent brute. In the first scene between Jake and Joey, he says, “hit me.” In their last scene together, he says, “kiss me.” This overlap punctuates not only his romantic relationships, but his familial ones as well. Jake must always assert his masculinity physically, because he cannot do it sexually. ![]() A bystander observes, “he ain’t pretty no more.” Sex and violence are synonymous in the film, and one precipitates the other. Another time, his wife comments that an opponent is good-looking, and Jake beats the man to a pulp. At one point, he douses his crotch in ice water before a big match to prevent himself from becoming aroused. Jake LaMotta is incapable of releasing his pent-up energy in the bedroom, so he does it in the ring. Jake LaMotta is one of the most flawed protagonists we have ever see onscreen.Īs with so many of Martin Scorsese’s films, the convergence between sex and violence lies at the center. This is why the film seems to cultivate empathy for such an unlikable character. The audience sees people the way Jake sees them, and we never know more than he knows at any given time, thus we are put into Jake’s shoes and forced to see the world through his eyes. There is perhaps no film that better embodies the term ‘character study.’ Raging Bull is told essentially in the first person. The subject is sexual frustration and Raging Bull pointedly explores the overlap between physical violence and impotence, using one man as the subject of its analysis. It has been said that Raging Bull is hardly a boxing film and there’s some truth to that. Raging Bull tells the story of middleweight champion Jake LaMotta, and his tumultuous life outside of the ring. ![]() Neither is the performance by Robert De Niro, although it is one of the most written-about in history. The direction by Martin Scorsese is not great. ![]() The script by Mardik Martin and Paul Schrader is great. There are great things about it and there are terrible things about it. Raging Bull (1980) is a movie I’m very ambivalent about. ![]()
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