The problem with watching Raging Bull is that it's reputation precedes itself. It is so highly respected, so entroned in the Cannon of Great Filmic Art, that even after watching it and acknolweging that it is indeed a Great, four-star film, one still feels a little dissapointed. All I keep thinking about as I am writing this is: How in the world did this make the Sight and Sound list?
It's a problem I keep having. Normally, I would be thrilled after watching a movie this good, but I still feel dissapointed. That's not the movie's fault, it's probably as good as it could be. Few pictures could live up to the hype.
Anyway, on to the film itself. For those who don't know, Raging Bull is a biopic of the life of boxer Jake La Motta (Robert De Niro giving one of the greatest performances of his career, which is saying something). Judging from the movie, which is based on La Motta's autobiography, he was a real loser. Paranoid, stupid, and anti-social, he alientes, often physically, everyone who has ever loved who tried to help him, including his wife and his brother. He has a few redeeming qualities- he is determined to suceed, even if he doesn't know why, and can posses a certain charm if he wants to. The film chronicles his life from 1941 to 1964, a period in which through his own hard work he acheived more success than most of can imagine, and blows it all.
The performances are excellent. De Niro is great, but you knew that already, he's always great. Joe Pesci as his brother is also excellent, for once inhabits a character instead of a persona. Cathy Moriety, as his underage lover and then wife, gives her character a three deminsional quality and strength that women in Scorsese's movies often lack.
All of the other formal elements are superb. Michael Chapman's black and white cinematography brings us into the universe of the movie, and Thelma Schoonmaker's editing gives it pace and feeling (both were apparently heavily influenced by Scorsese's storyboards). Scorsese also imploys an unsual aural landscapre to the film-it sounds murky, like a boxer hearing loss after a fight (Francis Ford Coppola would use a similer soundscape in Rumble Fish). The movie is well written and story rings true.
All that I list above is all I could ever hope to ask for from a movie. It plays to the head and the heart, it says something, and you can watch a filmmaker mastering his craft. So why am I underwhelmed?
Maybe it's because I wasn't emotionally overwhelmed by the movie. I cared, yes, but the movie keeps us a certain distance from La Motta, so we are always detached from him. Instead of feeling what he feels, we watch him, detached. Scorsese does a great job here, but other directors have done this better (Coppola in The Conversation comes to mind).
Maybe it's Raging Bull was considerded to be robbed at the 1980 Oscars, losing Best Picture to Robert Redford's Ordinary People, which is considered today to be vastly infeior. This could be failure on my part, as I love Ordinary People, it's a non-negotaible entry on my top twenty films. I think it's a far more emotional and intelligent film than this, which is saying a lot.
Or maybe it's because of my own cineaste experinces with Martin Scorsese. I read about how amazing Scorsese was for years without being able to see any of his films. When I finally could watch them, I couldn't understand. As entertianing as they were, I couldn't see how anyone could consider him to be "the greatest director alive", or sometimes "the greatest American director alive". Taxi Driver is a great film but it is not, as Roger Ebert said, "the greatest film of the 1970's" (that would be The Godfather). So I feel a little frustrated when it comes Scorsese, either at myself for not getting it or at critics and cineastes and bros who love his films.
I don't know if this qualifies as a movie review (I have a feeling it doesn't). But it does qualifiy as being a document of my feelings after watching this movie. I feel a little letdown, but let's be fair here: this is a great film. If you havn't seen it, you should, as soon as possible. Just don't let the hype machine get you first.
Raging Bull (1980)