Overview and Background
The Raging Bull is a sports drama film that was first initiated in 1980 by director Martin Scorsese. Irwin Winker produced the film, and Mardik Martin, together with Paul Schrader, later adopted it (Bye, 2017). The chief cinematographer of the movie is Michael Chapman, while its editor is Thelma Schoonmaker. The release of the film first took place in New York City on 14 th November 1980, and it also took place on 19 th December of the same year. The movie has an approximate running time of 129 minutes, and its direction happens in English (Bye, 2017). The production costs of the movie were at around $23.4 million. The movie falls under the blockbuster categories of the movies that were produced during that time. The film reminisces the period of conflicts and imperialism and a time where the influence of the media was notably significant. At the same time, the movie was produced at a time when there were exploitations and horror films.
Character and Narrative Description
The film depicts an elderly Italian-American man named Robert De Niro (Jake LaMotta), who is practicing in the remaining parts of the movie in a flashback form. LaMotta takes part in a significant boxing competition where he ends up losing against Jimmy Reeves. Joey confronts Jake about the possibility of taking part in middleweight competition (Bye, 2017). At a later time, Jake notes a young girl of 15 years Vikki (Cathy Moriarty) in the Bronx neighborhood at a swimming pool. Even though Jake is married, he gets interested in the 15-year old and persuades her for a relationship endeavor. Jake ends up defeating Sugar Ray Robinson in 1943, and a rematch is put in place after twenty-one days. His failure to win the rematch is blamed on the presiding judge. Jake engages Vikki in 1947 but starts feeling insecure soon after that. The jealousy for the new love begins impacting his brother Joey. Jake assaults Joey on suspicion that he is having an affair with Vikki. The confrontation was the start of his multiple failures because he ends up recording more losses in the following matches.
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Mise-en-scene and Cinematography
Mise-en-scene is used visually when accentuating action engaging attention. It realizes realism and makes a setting have an authentic look or make actors look natural. Raging Bull depicts this aspect because every episode is placed in various locations (Welch, 2016). It is a way of developing the theme of the movie. For example, the boxing competition s full of flashbacks and real-life shots. Flashbacks make the audience compare the current issues with past ones hence following the plot of the movie. The film has many actors with the chronological flow of the scenes (Welch, 2016). Cinematography is widely used. The face is in the darkness, and the audience can only see part of the body and voice of the main actor. Devastating moments are highlighted in the cool music and shadows. The costumes also used to enhance the overall impression of the film.
Editing Description
The editing process sometimes is slow, and at other points it is quick. All of these are meant to bow the pace of the narrative. The cuts done by Schoonmaker are vicious and have a meaning, and so are her matches (Welch, 2016). At some point, the facial expression of the boxer is exhausted like the matches, and at other times, the eyes are wide open, and he is lazy.
Sequence Description
We start watching a scene where Lamotta is swinging his fists fiercely into his opponents. Then the scene is scary because of the diegetic sounds that come from the synchronous blows. The actions are intensified because of the flashed that comes from the photograph corresponding to the shot cuttings.
References
Bye, S. (2017). A movie masterclass: Lessons from Martin Scorsese. Screen Education, (84), 8.
Welch, J. S. (2016). Closing the laches: Does the split decision in the Raging Bull case finally bring some consistency to the doctrine of laches in copyright infringement?. Southern Law Journal, 26(1), 59.
