Derrick Lee
Introduction to Film
11/16/2013 Saturday A.M

Raging Bull Film Analysis

My reaction to the film Raging Bull was a positive one. The film displayed a troubled fighter looking to escape his personal reality by fighting in a boxing ring. Martin Scorcese directed the film it was to be his Swan song from movie making. Robert Deniro starred as Jake Lamotta a troubled individual who didn’t feel comfortable in real life situation but once he enter the ring it became his world. Joe Pesci costarred in the movie as his brother/trainer this was Pesci first big break as a film actor he had done mostly minor films prior to the making of the film. The movie takes the viewer on a rollercoaster ride through Jakes life from a wannabe fighter into one of most fierce men to enter the ring. The film also showed his insecurities out of the ring with the women in his life. He was very insecure in relationship from males and females mostly from the women in his life he didn’t trust them at all. He met and married his second wife while she was just a teen which added more fuel to the fire of an already insecure man. His decisions out of the ring made him a very volatile inside of the ring he threw a fight on purpose just to get a shot at a title. His decision to throw the fight almost cost him his career because it was so obvious to the spectators the boxing commission had to suspend him. Jake also had several memorable bouts against Sugar Ray Robinson the last one leaving him bloodied and battered but he never fell taking the punishment that was being dealt to him. His personal demons also fractured the relationship with his brother after physically assaulting his wife he then turns his frustrations on his own brother and beats him senseless. That relationship would never be fixed even though Jake knows that he was wrong and tries to apologize years later. After his retirement from the ring he becomes a club owner and a semi standup comic but trouble soon finds him again after he is arrest for soliciting underage girls at his club. Before going to jail he tries to raise bribe money for his case by selling his championship belt. The problem with that was he removed the jewelry from the belt which made it worthless to the jeweler. After being sentenced he goes berserk in his cell punching walls and questioning how he put himself in that situation. After being released he goes back to stand up comedy he looks in the mirror and quotes the line from On the Waterfront that he could have been a contender. The movie uses Chronological editing which moves the action in a seamless way from the older and fatter Jake to the slim and in shape boxer back to an older version of Jake. In the sequence in which he is fixing the T.V with his brother they take action from the living room up to the bedroom where he breaks down the bathroom door in order to abuse his whom he thinks has slept with his brother. The scene move seamless from living room to bathroom and then finally ends at his brothers house which is down the street from him once inside he brutally attack his brother in front of his wife and children. All the while Jakes wife is pleading with him to stop at which point he turns and knocks her out cold with one punch. That scene hardly required any editing as the camera moved with them at a fast pace giving it a seamless quality. There many scenes in which sound played an important part none so much as in scenes that involve the ring Scorcese used the sounds of punches without really showing any that landed on the fighters. He allowed the sound of punching to intensify the actual fight scene. That gave it a brutal type of feel and you could almost feel as if you were sitting ringside. The scene in which he fought Sugar Ray Robinson for last time really made the sound stand out you knew he was getting his clock cleaned but the sound increased the level of brutality. Even with the pounding he took from Sugar Ray he never was knocked off his feet and the last scene of the fight showed a boxing rope saturated with Jakes blood dripping to the floor. The music in the film was set exactly to the era in which they live and could be heard on the radio at the time. The music that played when he first met Vickie made the situation seem innocent even though his intentions were otherwise as they talked it made the impression that she was an angelic person full of virtue and innocence. The thing that I learned about editing and sound is that it has to be thought about beforehand and not just a foregone conclusion that you can just cut and paste things to make it a film. With the proper editing the movie moves along smoothly without losing the audience in the process. It gives the viewer continuity with the action that is being presented. The same goes for sound the movie becomes realistic in a way because of what you hear audibly translate to your brain in a much different way than just seeing something visually. I see the same in old Three Stooges movies where if it was any sound effects of the slaps and pratfalls wouldn’t be funny. It helps to intensify the effect that is being presented on the screen even if your eyes were closed it would convey its message to you. The music in films helps to show the emotion of the actors and give a little insight to their inner feelings without them saying a word.