Every decade since the '70s has had something moving through it. A tour de force, unstoppable in its own way.
Robert DeNiro starred in the 1980 film "Raging Bull," a biopic of boxer Jake LaMotta.
Martin Scorsese has moved erratically and domineeringly through the last four decades like a man on fire, hell-bent to make films that change the way we think about character and story and movement and scene.
The most interesting story of any of these films, in terms of how it came to be made, is "Raging Bull."
The film was adapted to the screen by the legendary writer of "Taxi Driver" (also done by Scorsese), from the book "Raging Bull: My Story," the memoir of the very manic boxer Jake LaMotta. The book was brought to Scorsese by Robert De Niro, who wanted to play LaMotta.
When originally adapted, it was far too graphic to be filmed as it was written and would have landed the unreleasable rating of X (now NC-17), so De Niro and Scorsese rewrote it again to get a more acceptable R rating.
The movie is not an average sports film; it's more a study of title character LaMotta, later a washed-up boxer and stand-up comedian.
The film is about his meteoric rise to prominence in the seedy world of boxing in the '40s, dealing with the moral complications of a profession that has a long and storied history of massive corruption.
The movie begins with Jake (De Niro) practicing stand up in front of a mirror, then flashes back to a black-and-white and grainy memory of his part in the boxing world. The film is in black and white, which gives the viewer a sense of looking at pictures from old sports magazines.
Jake quickly rises to the top, due to his tenacious attitude in the ring. This is important because all of the boxing scenes were shot up-close and in the ring, unlike films like "Rocky."
"Rocky" would have you feel like a spectator on the sidelines, but in "Raging Bull," you are with Jake through every blow and drop of sweat. You can almost feel the beating he is taking, because of Scorsese's brilliant cinematography.
But the real brilliance of the film is the brutally real Jake, brought to us by De Niro. His character is gritty and real and has problems like a real person. A far cry from "Rocky," you can hate this guy if you feel so inclined.
One of the scenes that brings this to full view is where Jake beats his brother/manager (played by the talented Mr. Joe Pesci). Jake is convinced that his brother is having an affair with his wife Vikki (played by Cathy Moriarty). The scene so real that it may have been the one that solidified this movie's reputation as the quintessential sports film.
I read in a late interview with Scorsese that the film took a long time to edit and produce. He said that this was because he believed it would be his last film, due to his obtuse cocaine abuse. He said that his career, and subsequently his life, were put into the making of this film, because he wanted to leave a good impression on the industry if it were to be his final film.
But as fate would have it, it was not his last film. And thank God for that, because I don't really want to know how we would have captured the last half of the 20th century's attitude without him. "Last Temptation of Christ," "Goodfellas," "Casino," "Gangs of New York" and "The Departed" are just a few monuments of praise to the gritty realism that can be captured in cinema, built by Scorsese.
So as you go to the theaters and watch movies about superheroes and spoofs of movies already made, realize that movies were once made to make us think and feel, and to make us be a part of something. And that's what this film does.
It sucks us into the void of corruption and mistrust and brutality of a world too vitriolic to not be extinguished.
But with the coming fall of Hollywood and the void of intellectualism that has developed in the film medium (which has so much promise to be all that art could be), we who appreciate art will start to gravitate back to the fire that once burned through the back of our heads when we individually experienced film like this, and we will realize that at one time, movies were not just junk food for the brain.
They once stood for a real understanding that art is the communication of one soul to another. With that idealism, we can move forward into a new era, where making brilliant and mortally beautiful art is the preferred motivation behind making film — not just seeing how much money you can suck out of loyal film patrons.
Zac Morrow is a Hempfield graduate and attends Harrisburg Area Community College, Lancaster. E-mail him at YourLife@LNPnews.com.
(387)
