RAGING BULL
(1980)With Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Cathy Moriarty, Frank Vincent
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Black and White/Color
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese's
followup
to TAXI DRIVER and NEW YORK, NEW YORK is yet another examination of
humanity's dark side, starring Robert De Niro as real-life boxer Jake
La Motta. Scorsese, believing this might be his last film,
gives
it all he has, using every camera, sound and editing technique under
the sun to tell his story, but never to show off.
De Niro, who brought
this project to
Scorsese's attention, gives his most powerful screen
performance
as the obsessively jealous and self-destructive La Motta, who begins
the film as a contender for the middleweight title and ends as a
washed-up has-been introducing strippers and reciting Marlon Brando's
dialogue from ON THE WATERFRONT for a living. It is yet
another
movie where Scorsese introduces us to an extremely unpleasant man and
then shows us, in excruciating detail, how much farther this man has to
fall. We are asked to spend two hours with a person whom we
would
not want to spend thirty seconds with with in real life. We
are
given no reason to sympathize with De Niro's La Motta, who is
physically, verbally and spiritually repulsive. Yet
Scorsese's
amazing gifts as a filmmaker and De Niro's riveting portrayal of La
Motta make RAGING BULL one of the greatest movies of the
'80s.
But not one of the most entertaining. 
-
JB
http://thestuffyougottawatch.com
Copyright © 2010 John V. Brennan, John Larrabee