Joseph McBride, the film critic for Variety, had this to say about “Raging Bull”: “Martin Scorsese makes pictures about the kinds of people you wouldn’t want to know.” And this fact is what makes the characters in the film so compelling – they’re prone to violence, they’re foul-mouthed and unruly, and they’ll attack anyone, including their own family members. Not only is Jake LaMotta not a saint, at times he’s a pretty much an unlikable character. However, “Raging Bull” announced to the world that Martin Scorsese was one of the greatest directors of all time. Like the boxer in the movie, the director himself would achieve the redemption he sought, because after the release of “Raging Bull”, which many consider Scorsese’s first true classic, the director would go on to direct other great films. “Raging Bull” has a certain honesty that only a few other films in the history of cinema could match.
Watching the film, you can’t help but get the impression that Scorsese was a director who didn’t care if he would ever make a another film again. Reuniting with Paul Schrader, who wrote a screenplay draft for “Raging Bull”, the three men who made “Taxi Driver” one of the defining movies of the 70s were working together once again. That’s when Scorsese realized the theme of redemption was the most powerful thing about the story of the middleweight boxer and agreed to finally make the movie. After a visit from De Niro, Scorsese was determined to make the necessary changes in his life and make a comeback career wise.
It wasn’t until years later while battling a drug addiction and with his career in question, he ended up hospitalized. The legendary actor became obsessed with bringing the story to the big screen and knew Scorsese was the only director right for the project.Īt first Scorsese turned down the offer to direct the film because he wasn’t a big fan of sports, he didn’t warm up to the material. Originally, “Raging Bull” was a passion project of Robert De Niro, who first read the autobiography of the boxer while filming “The Godfather: Part II”. While many consider this film to be the director’s finest effort as a filmmaker, it’s also a film for many years he refused to make. “Raging Bull” has landed on the short list as one of the greatest films ever made and many film critics and fans agree that it’s the best film in Martin Scorsese’s storied career. Based on the real-life story of middleweight boxer Jake LaMotta, the film is less cinema and more like a documentary disguised as a movie. The iconic film “Raging Bull”, released in 1980 and directed by Martin Scorsese, has an unflinching realism and brutal honesty to it, captured in a surreal black-and-white world of anger, violence and redemption.
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