The Film Analysis of Lance - Raging Bull

This film was adapted according the real life of Jake La Motta, the former Middle Weight boxing champion in the world. Jake La Motta, the Italian boxer who was born in Brooklyn of New York with sturdy body and quick movement, was called “Raging Bull” in boxing field. Director Martin Scorcese tried to unveil the contradiction of humanity though the career of the great boxing champion.

It is necessary to mention the main actor of this film, Robert De Niro, before we go on to analysis this film.

If a person is too narcissism, it is very tormenting. He will torment not only others but also himself. That is De Niro. In case of the limit of NG is 4 or 5 times for other actors, De Niro can make it more than 30 times, because of worrying about himself.

This is not the only way to torture. When he was dissatisfied with his partner, he would shout with abuse to him:”I’m gonna bust your grape!” De Niro hates any director who attempts to direct the next step of his performing. Suppose anybody does, his face will look rather bad.
 

Certainly, he was better at suffering himself. He could buy thousand of costumes in order to look more like the character. He would go to the factory to work to experience the script. He also can exercise himself to be a muscle man, and then destroy the muscles by gluttony, if it is necessary.

Returning to the film, the beginning of Raging Bull is pretty cool. Jake La Motta (by Robert De Niro) wore the capote. I don’t know whether there was sweat or rainwater on the capote. It is so excited when Jack was doing the warming on the boxing ring under the dim light. There were looming audiences around the ring and three very thick horizontal ropes coming into view. The ropes round the La Motta whose motions were shot in high-speed (low motion). So that the scene looked having a clear metaphor. Jack La Motta was like a wild animal in the cage which was watched. He moved around and roared but useless. It is Martin’s films that can describe the opposites.

Jack La Motta was a poor man. On the boxing ring, he was a hero. He can beat down any opponent. But in his private life, he was timid, slow and suspicious. In order to get rid of his cat-and-dog life with his ex-wife, he went to pub with his brother. And to pursuit of a girl, named Vickie, was another purpose. He was timid so he let his brother to date Vickie for him. And when La Motta brought Vickie to take the air, he attempted to put his arm on girl’s shoulder, but he still had no guts to do that only stayed his arm on the chair back. They played skittle ball. The girl hit the ball and the ball was disappeared. They found around but the ball still hid in mystery. They felt so boring. After that they go to La Motta’s father’s house. At first, La Motta opened the fridge and asked the girl what she wanted to eat. She said no. Then he closed the fridge and sat with Vickie beside one table. They sit face to face and nothing to talk. La Motta told her to sit a bit close. Then the girl sat the side of the table, still nothing to say. Finally Jack told Vickie to sit on his leg. The girl followed but didn’t know what to say as well. This period of action looks so funny. A great boxer in the boxing ring seemed so bashful. Following that when Vickie saw the photo of Jack and his brother, he stand behind the girl, kissed her, and kissed her again. In this awkward situation, Jack La Motta didn’t say any words to relax the atmosphere. The boxer is a rough man, he couldn’t say any wisecracking words. Through this period scene, the personality of boxer was showed pretty incisively and vividly. The film was so different that made people think the images were truth instead of film scene.

“Did you fuck with my brother?” boxing champion questioned his wife with nervous sound again and again. At this time, the champion had already broken down. After that La Motta rushed into his brother, Joey’s house and almost killed him. When he hit his brother, elder Martin used the POV to show Jack’s craze and Joey’s fear. Before that on his way to his brother’s home, a period of long shot express Jack was like an animal and nobody can stop him. Jack walked fast, and then his wife caught him but still can’t make him reduce the speed a bit. He was like a red-eye bull. The boxing champion was able to control the ring, but couldn’t catch his life. It seemed a bit sad.

“Hey, Ray. I never went down. You never got me down, Ray.” After he kept two years of Middle Weight boxing champion in the world, he was defeated by a player who was beat down by himself several years ago. These two years was the most brilliant two years in Jack La Motta’s life. Martin Scorcese chose a period of life recorded by family camera with color, it is the only part with color in this film, and added an easy music of light opera. In this color part, the elder Martin used fast motion to express the happy mood. But after these two years, he was defeat. He didn’t go down, though the fist punched him like raindrops. He was a unbending soul. On the boxing ring, he could be defeated; he faced fail, but never went down. That was an attitude to face the loss. Here, slow motions were very prefect to show the hesitate and scare in his opponent’s mind. Many close shot focused on Jack’s face, hands and legs. His hands caught the rope of the ring, and slide, and caught again. His blood flew down the shaking legs, mixed sweat. These close shots gave us an image of a tough guy.

In my opinion, this film was not the real legend of boxing champion Jack La Motta. The director Martin Scorcese wanted to show us that nobody is prefect, nobody is too atrocious to forgive. A great boxer in the ring might be an evil in his private life. On the other hand, the elder Martin let the audience to discover how the jealous made a man into an animal, and destroyed all his life. If we analysis the person who created by the elder Martin separately, on the boxing ring, he was a brave heart and sturdy warrior; in his private life, he was a selfish animal. He didn’t care about anyone except himself. Perhaps Martin Scorcese just wanted to express this kind of contradiction in order to reflect on ourselves.