This is part of a series of articles reviewing the American Film Institute's Top 100 Films, as updated in 2007. Why am I doing this? Because the damned cinemas are closed and I have to review something.
(M) ★★★½
Director: Martin Scorsese.
Cast: Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Cathy Moriarty, Nicholas Colasanto, Theresa Saldana, Frank Vincent, Lori Anne Flax, Johnny Barnes.
Some truly amazing films aren't enjoyable to watch. I know Requiem For A Dream is incredible, but I have no plans to watch it again. And I'm not sure I could ever sit through Grave Of The Fireflies again, despite it being truly remarkable.
Raging Bull is not enjoyable to watch. It's about a horrible person; a violent, misogynistic bastard with no redeemable qualities. Jake LaMotta is a real piece of shit, and perhaps the most remarkable thing about Raging Bull is that the real life LaMotta was a consultant on the film. Either he has no self-awareness or an incredible amount of self-awareness - I can't tell which.
LaMotta was a boxer - a pretty good one too, it seems. He had a head like brick and would never go down in a fight. Raging Bull tracks his career from hard-to-beat hopeful to champion to washed-up entertainer.
Within the first 15 minutes of the film, we understand that La Motta is insane and detestable. By the end, nothing has changed. We've watched a real shit bloke continue to be a shit bloke, and look where he ends up? Still a shit bloke, and with nothing to show for it.
Maybe that's the point. Some critics argue that part of Raging Bull's triumph is that we actually end up caring for this piece of shit by film's end (it's right at the end of the article). I say that's a pile of raging bullshit. At no point do I care about Jake LaMotta, and maybe that's why I struggle to rate this as one of the best films of all time. But maybe that is indeed the point.
So here goes, I'm going to say some controversial things. Raging Bull is beautifully filmed, magnificently edited, and features a remarkable performance from one of the greatest actors of all time. But I don't think it should be #4 on the AFI list. For mine, it's not even Scorsese's best film. Give me Taxi Driver or The King Of Comedy or The Wolf Of Wall Street or Goodfellas or The Irishman or even Hugo (don't tell anyone, but I fucking love Hugo).
The lack of empathy is its undoing for me. This unsympathetic character doesn't illuminate anything for me. What is the film trying to say? I don't know what to take away from it. LaMotta doesn't learn anything, and it doesn't feel like the film is saying anything beyond it's surface level of "violent man bad" or "don't be a cunt". As everyone in his life slowly leaves LaMotta, I wanted to cheer. Am I the arsehole? Or did Raging Bull miss its mark in the sympathy department? Or is that the point? Is the fact that LaMotta is a shit bloke the be-all-and-end-all of the film? If so, that's not enough in my book.
The difficult part of reviewing classic films that are put up on pedestals is that if you disagree with their perceived greatness, it feels like you're missing something. One of my favourite film reviewers, The Incredible Suit, ranked Raging Bull as the greatest Scorsese film of all time. So what am I missing?
The great Roger Ebert said "Raging Bull is the most painful and heartrending portrait of jealousy in the cinema... it's the best film I've seen about the low self-esteem, sexual inadequacy and fear that lead some men to abuse women". I can't argue with that, but what is it really saying about all these aspects? Is that it?
Having said all that, its artistry is amazing. The editing by Thelma Schoonmaker is outstanding, and the way she and Scorsese edit the fight sequences and brisk mid-film montage is genius and unlike anything I've seen before. Michael Chapman's cinematography, in crisp black and white, is gorgeous. The staging of the fights is brutal, and Chapman captures it in all its visceral, blood-spurting glory,
It's obvious Scorsese has no love for the sport (neither do I to be honest). Somewhat like LaMotta, Scorsese sees it as punching and not falling down, unlike other boxing films with more passion for its finer qualities, like say Rocky or Ali or The Fighter. As a result, LaMotta rarely comes off as a sportsman - we see him training once and all he does is try to beat the shit out of his brother. Raging Bull offers no insight into what boxing means to those who adore the sport, and indeed makes no real comment about it. This makes it hard to see how or why it's often held up as the pinnacle of boxing movies.
But the one aspect of the film that is truly outstanding is De Niro. An argument could be made that Raging Bull deserves its place at #4 purely on De Niro's back alone. He perfectly captures the insanity, the paranoia, the toxic masculinity, and the insecurities of LaMotta. De Niro himself is invisible and in his place is a man who is as dumb as a box of hammers and who complains he gets no respect from anyone, yet never offers any respect to anyone. A lot is made of De Niro's physical transformation, which is stunning (and disturbing), but really it's the cherry on the top of the performance.
Less is said about Pesci, who is outstanding in the film, and even less (unfortunately) is said about Moriarty, who is out-of-this-world as LaMotta's wife Vikki, earning an Oscar nomination in her film debut.
While Raging Bull is not enjoyable, that doesn't mean it's bad, and by no means is it a bad film. It's a meditation on violence and the fragility that births it, and as such it's incredibly effective, although this meditation is limited and limiting. Some critics highlight the influence Scorsese's Catholic guilt has on the story, and the nature of sin, but I don't see that in the film. It's a contextual reading that, while potentially important, doesn't ring true in the film, which has very little in the way of religion.
Raging Bull is wonderfully made and features one of the all-time greatest performances, but I feel like I'm missing the point, or that there isn't a grand point to be made outside the bleedingly obvious - that being a violent jealous piece of shit gets you nowhere.
Or is that the point?
(If you love Raging Bull, tell me what I'm missing in the comments. Be kind, and I'll be willing to listen.)
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