Film Picks: Raging Bull

40 YEARS AFTER MOHAMMAD ALI DEFEATED GEORGE FORMAN IN THE RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE, WYNDHAM HACKET PAIN RECOMMENDS THE BEAUTIFUL AND BRUTAL RAGING BULL.

Sport can have a transcendent quality. It can manage to express the dreams and desires, the hardship and the heartbreak, of those who compete and for those who spectate. So 40 years ago when Mohammad Ali knocked-out George Forman, it was a moment of grace and elegance which surpassed the mere facts of the occasion. In the same way, the sigh Jake LaMotta defeating and being defeated by those he meets in the ring, manages to show a complexity within his character that would otherwise be ignored.

Raging Bull tells the story of boxer Jake LaMotta, his rise to be World Middleweight Champion, before his professional and moral fall. The rise and fall stories of sportsmen are common and clichéd within film, yet, Raging Bull manages to separate itself from the others with its unique blend of grit and grace. Few films have ever been able to examine jealousy and self-destruction in an as clear and unflinching a way.

The fight scenes remain some of the most beautiful sequences within the whole of cinema. In the hands of Martin Scorsese the sport of brutes becomes both operatic and spiritual. The ring becomes a place of redemption, where sinners come and take penetrance, through the expression of their craft. Jake LaMotta is one of these sinners, he is a man who destroys himself and those around him with his jealousy and insecurity. Yet in the ring these characteristics that ultimately ruin his life also make him Champion of the World.

FEW FILMS HAVE EVER BEEN ABLE TO EXAMINE JEALOUSY AND SELF-DESTRUCTION IN AN AS CLEAR AND UNFLINCHING A WAY.

Martin Scorsese has always been influenced by the Italian neo-realist movement, and it is never more evident than in Raging Bull. The domestic scenes used stripped back lighting and the simple setting to give the film a raw and honest quality that only enhances the corruption and decline of Jake LaMotta. There is an emotive quality to the films visuals which few films have ever achieved.

“I coulda’ had class. I coulda’ been a contender. I coulda’ been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am,” these are the words of Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront, which Robert De Niro quotes in the film. Well, Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull, was a contender, he was more than a contender, he was Champion of the World, but that did not stop him being a bum. It did not stop him falling from grace, if anything it made it all the more spectacular.