Defining Favourites: Raging Bull (1980)

Martin Scorsese's biopic of boxer Jake LaMotta is one of the most incisive portraits of insecurity captured on screen.

Photo: United Artists

Welcome to my Defining Favourites, a section dedicated to essays about films that I feel confident in calling favourites in some way or another - akin to Roger Ebert’s “Great Movies” reviews. These essays are for paid subscribers, so if you would like to read more beyond the free preview, please consider subscribing.

Directed by Martin Scorsese
Screenplay by Paul Schrader, Mardik Martin, from the biography Raging Bull: My Story by Jake LaMotta, Joseph Carter, Peter Savage
Produced by Irwin Winkler, Robert Chartoff
Starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Cathy Moriarty, Frank Vincent
Premiere Date: November 14, 1980
Running Time: 129 minutes

It was only fitting that Raging Bull was made at the point in Martin Scorsese’s directorial career when it did. Martin Scorsese was already undergoing a personal crisis after the failure of New York, New York and he had also nearly died from a cocaine overdose. Scorsese was also not interested in making a film about boxing, for he never was a sports fan, but ultimately came to realize that Jake LaMotta’s own struggle outside of the ring was something that he deeply identified with at this point in time. And thus, what came forth from this biography of the emotionally destructive boxer is a wholly visceral experience from start to finish. It’s not only taxing in a way that captures LaMotta’s life in and out of the ring, but it reflects Martin Scorsese’s own desire to exorcise personal demons at the cost of his own relationships with those he loves most.

While watching Raging Bull, it’s evident that Martin Scorsese does not have much sympathy for Jake LaMotta – even if it’s easy in practice to put himself within his shoes. It’s easy enough to feel that way through how all the boxing scenes are filmed, because we’re watching them with great emphasis for the physical pain that LaMotta endures while he’s in the ring, but his own failings result in very violent outbursts within his domestic life. In identifying with Jake LaMotta, we’re also seeing Martin Scorsese trying to put the viewers within that very uncomfortable position too – but it’s also where he’s able to create a compelling character out of LaMotta for all his failings both within the ring and in his personal life.