Raging Bull (1980) * * * 1/2

Directed by: Martin Scorsese

Starring: Robert Deniro, Joe Pesci, Cathy Moriarty


Although Raging Bull focuses on the early life and career of boxer Jake Lamotta (Deniro), who once held the World Middleweight title, the boxing takes a back seat.   In true Scorsese fashion, the focus is instead on how Lamotta was his own worst enemy on more than one occasion.   His low self-esteem and jealousy threatens his marriage, while his brutish nature alienates almost everyone else. Many times during the film, I simply shook my head as Lamotta continually dug himself a deeper hole.   Lamotta never once thought his life would be better if he learned to get out of his own way. Everyone else saw this, but Lamotta lacked the introspection to truly see it.

Because Lamotta is so hard-headed and incapable of change, Raging Bull's emotional arc only goes so high. However, Raging Bull teems with tension, energy, and of course, Deniro's performance. His Lamotta doesn't deserve sympathy, but he inspires it anyway. He is the catalyst of many scenes in which the pressure he puts on his relationships becomes intolerable. Watch the early scenes in which Lamotta was an up-and-comer living in a cramped Bronx apartment with his first wife. The apartment is small, the hallways small, and the summer heat hangs a pall over everything. Lamotta makes it worse by constantly fighting with his wife over steak and just about everything else. Why the fighting? Not only is it his profession, but his nature, or his pathology.

Raging Bull concerns more with Lamotta's second marriage to a girl named Vikki (Moriarty), who is 15 when they meet, yet carries herself with far more street smarts and maturity than perhaps Lamotta can handle. Lamotta idealizes her in perfectly Freudian terms. Before obtaining her, he sees her as an unblemished virgin, even if she isn't necessarily one. When he first sees her and asks Joey about her, it is more of an interrogation of whether Joey had sex with her. He is unable to handle Vikki's sexuality before or during his marriage. It is a classic "madonna-whore" complex.

When Jake marries Vikki, he is obsessed with imagined infidelities. Every move Vikki makes is scrutinized and questioned. How she greets friends is also a subject of great controversy. An innocent kiss becomes a fight between Jake and Joey, leading to a rift that is somewhat repaired years later. At one point, Vikki describes an opponent of Lamotta's as "good looking", which turns into sleepless nights and a brutal beating for the poor guy. "He ain't pretty no more", says an onlooker as Lamotta pounds the guy's face into mincemeat.

Raging Bull has brutal, bloody, and realistic fights.    Unlike Rocky movies, hundreds of punches aren't thrown over the course of a round.   The fight scenes aren't about fighting anyway, but act more as a chance for catharsis and relief for Lamotta.   Fighting is a brief outlet for the rage, frustrations, and insecurities of Lamotta.   At one point, Lamotta takes a dive for some local mobsters looking to make money and afterward he is sobbing uncontrollably over it. "What did I do?" he asks himself, but I wondered if he was upset over taking the dive or because his one outlet may be taken away if the fix is discovered.

Raging Bull also focuses on Lamotta's post-boxing career, which consisted of running bars, trying stand-up comic, and running afoul of the law. Vikki finally leaves him after one fight too many and he is jailed for serving drinks to a 14-year-old.   How is he convinced the girl is 21?   By making out with her, which makes Lamotta a hypocrite as well in terms of his personal life.   It would've been poetic if Vikki caught him with the 14-year-old and gave him a taste of his own medicine.

A funny thing happened while writing this review. In the title section, I awarded Raging Bull three stars, but the more I wrote, the more I discovered that Raging Bull is better than that. I changed my star rating to three and a half stars. I still believe that Raging Bull doesn't have the emotional power of the film that famously beat it for Best Picture in 1980, Ordinary People, but it is still a strong film with performances by Deniro, Pesci, and Moriarty that provide dimensions that you may not see the first time around.