Why raging bull is great

This was juxtaposed with his real life, which was filmed simply; often times the camera would have a simple set up, nothing fancy, symbolizing how outside of the ring he was far from being a king. The unsung hero in the movie is film editor Thelma Schoonmaker.

Her ability to assemble the surreal boxing scenes is what gives the film its true strength, and juxtaposing the artistic boxing sequences with the more subdued dramatic scenes gives the film a visceral impact. Before the film went into production, the executives at United Artists were reluctant about the material, feeling Jake LaMotta was such unlikable character that it would be hard to find an audience for the film.

Several drafts of the screenplay were written before Scorsese convinced Paul Schrader to come aboard on the project. When the executives read the new screenplay they were worried the project might receive an X-rating, so De Niro and Scorsese traveled to St. Martin in the Caribbean so they could concentrate on writing the screenplay without any of the distractions back in New York.

Scorsese even commented that the trip to the St. Once the film was finally finished and released in theaters, it did modest business at the box office and critics hailed the film as a masterpiece. Jake LaMotta, played by Robert De Niro in what may be the performance of his career, is a titanic character, a furious, original, a mean, inarticulate, Bronx-bred fighter whom the movie refuses to explain away in either sociological or psychiatric terms, or even in terms of the Roman Catholicism of his Italian-American heritage.

He is propelled not by his milieu, his unruly id or by his guilts, but by something far more mysterious. Author Bio: R. More entertaining? But better? Give me a break! I just like it when things go insane. As you said in another reply here: The film is indeed too long. Also on the same day as Hustle came the dramedy biopic Saving Mr. It was just poor timing for Scorsese and looking back it makes Wolf stand out less in terms of tone and spirit.

Scorsese grew up with Hollywood movies of the fifties, but he started making movies in the nineteen-sixties, at the time of high European modernism and its American offshoots, and his best movies reflect an idiosyncratic hybrid of these tendencies—tightly ratcheted and logically coherent, they rely on character and psychology as springboards for action that nonetheless surpasses its personal specifics to develop, through aesthetic ideas, a philosophical vision.

By Richard Brody. From sound film to steadicam, these technologies were pivotal moments in film history. Richard Brody began writing for The New Yorker in He writes about movies in his blog, The Front Row. Enter your e-mail address. There are scenes where he stands passively, his hands at his side, allowing himself to be hammered.

We sense why he didn't go down. He hurt too much to allow the pain to stop. Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from until his death in In , he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

Reviews Great Movies Raging Bull. Roger Ebert May 10, Now streaming on:. Powered by JustWatch. Sports Film. Now playing. Snakehead Odie Henderson.

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