A Martin Scorsese Film
    In 1980, the film was released.  A Scorsese masterpiece that takes an ambivalent attitude towards an American ideological issue; VIOLENCE.
Be prepared now to venture into conventions of cinematic realism that will show the visceral and disturbing aspects of violence.
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    Raging Bull is a tragic dramatic documentary that is based on the life of Jake La Motta, a famous middleweight boxer of the 1940s.  Shot in black and white, the film focuses on the rage and violence of Jake, played by Robert De Niro (pictured above with Martin Scorsese).  As the story progresses, we see how this man's desire to fight consumes him and makes life impossible for those close to him when his rage spills out of the ring.  The film follows Jake La Motta's life as it passes through successive stages of punishment toward self-disintegration.

    The beginning of the film truly shapes the viewer's attitude towards Jake and creates a mystique for the film.  The first image seen is a lengthy slow-motion shot of Jake warming up in the ring wearing his monk-like hooded leopard-skin robe.  But there is much more implied than just a boxer getting ready for  a fight.  Several cinematographic  strategies work together to form an initial and significant meaning.  For the viewing pleasure of the students of English 42, click the picture below to view the opening scene of Raging Bull.

    This opening scene presents the viewer with many cinematographic techniques.  First, the scene is a closed frame composition.  All that is seen is Jake alone, shadow-boxing into the dark smoky air of the boxing ring.  The ropes of the ring serve as a frame for the shot; vision is limited to only the contents of the ring.  In this ring, Jake is bouncing up and down in slow motion while accompanied by languid classical music.  The use of a wide-angle lens provides a distortion for the size of the ring and makes it seem quite enormous.  The ropes of the ring are enlarged in the foreground and Jake appears to be in the back part of the ring.  This abstract long shot of  Jake shapes our attitude about the protagonist and sets the mood as well.
    Through the cinematography, it is implied that this boxer is in solitude both in the ring and in his outside life.  He is captured in a huge boxing ring alone and appears to be gracefully dancing in slow motion to beautiful yet melancholy music.  He is unaware of anything else outside of boxing.  This "dreamy" scene is prophetic to his life.  Jake does confine himself to boxing, making it his passion in life.  Therefore he fails to see any importance in life beyond the ring and violence equals his means of success.

 
 
     Jake La Motta's life is much like his bouncing up and down in the ring during warm up.  There is a rise and fall pattern in his life, and since this film is set as Jake's flash back we see events mostly from his point of view and everything is focused on his experiences.  The film includes a section where we follow Jake through life by seeing montage scenes of his fights interrupted with home movies of his private life.  Scene by scene, the organization of events show that aggression and pain are destroying his life and causing the people that love him to leave.
    Violence is shown through techniques that create the sense of realism, and this realism makes the violence especially disturbing.  To begin with, the film for the most part is in black and white instead of color.  Often bright colors can make a film seem very "Hollywood" or unrealistic.  Color also can affect the mood of a film.  This film is intended to be a representation of the dark aspects of humanity.  Therefore, by making the film in color might take away from the dark mood.
    However, there are some instances where color footage is inserted.  For example, there is a series of black and white stills and freeze frames of Jake's boxing  matches from 1944 to 1947.  The fight images alternate with candid, color home movies of Jake's domestic life during the same period.  The color footage is faded, scratched, jumpy, and out of focus.  The home movies do not depict reality.  The people in them are overly happy and over acting.  The viewer knows that all is not well within the lives of Jake and his family.  Thus the color footage is purposefully scratched and altered by the filmmaker to show that what the home movies show is a lie.  
Click above to view a portion of this montage sequence alternating a series of fights and home movies of Jake's private life. 
 
 
    Other techniques used to make the violence realistic and disturbing are seen in the fight scenes.  Many of the fight scenes were filmed with a hand-held camera (probably on a steadicam harness).  Hand-held shots can achieve close-ups of the characters.  This is especially effective when showing facial expressions of the boxers during the fights.  Backlighting was also used in many fight scenes.  The backlight, created by the spotlights surrounding the ring, put an almost supernatural glow behind the fighters making them seem like some sort of god-like creatures inside the ring.  Backlighting was also effective for highlighting the blood and sweat that sprayed off the boxers as they received harsh punches.
    During the fights, many rapid cuts were also made.  There are few instances where we actually see the boxers circling each other in preparation to step in and jab their opponent.  Instead, the fight scenes were broken down into several short shots.  They were filmed not as a duel of strategy, but simply as punching blows.  The camera was sometimes only inches from the fists.  Along with the rapid editing, fights were filmed in montage sequences alternating from fight to fight.  These editing techniques bombarded the viewer with graphic and constant violence, which are are more grotesque that any horror movie.  Click below to see a short clip of one of the early fight scenes.

    Fight scenes also used special effects for the soundtrack.  The ambient sound combined crowd noise with animal cries, bird shrieks, and explosions of flashbulbs.  These sound effects have the purpose of making the fight not only hard to watch, but also hard to listen to.  Finally, each boxing match has a superimposed title that identifies the match, date, and boxers.  Placing a date and names with the action makes the style of the film seem like a documentary.  The documentary style validates the events and draws in the viewer's emotions as they begin to feel like they are watching historical and factual matches.

 

    The violence that takes place in this movie is not confined to the ring.  Jake's treatment of his wives and his brother is very brutal.  However, the portrayal of violence is different once outside of the ring.  Instead of short scenes and rapid cuts, Scorsese uses long shots and less vivid and bloody images.  This is so that the scenes have more time to burn the violent image into the viewer's mind.  Incidents of violence in his personal life are much different because Jake is no longer pounding a competitor to win a match; he is beating up someone with whom he has a personal relationship.  Such incidents of domestic violence are far more disturbing.  Therefore, graphic images of spraying blood are not necessary.  It is much more effective to have long shots of the violent scenes to show the emotional reactions of the victims.  These scenes show how violence goes beyond the bodily harm caused during a match and extends into the form of mental abuse as well.
The clip below demonstrates this in the scene where Jake accuses his brother of having an affair with his wife.

 
    Even though Jake La Motta is a less than sympathetic character, point of view shots force us to identify with him.  There are several times when events are shown through Jake's eyes.  In such cases we are able to not only see what he sees, but also to see how he physically reacts.  Point of view shots make us feel like we are entering Jake's mind and therefore we can identify with him because see things as he does.  We watch, as he looks at other men who flirt with his wife Vicki and we can almost understand his reason for a jealous rage.  Click below for an illustration of this.  
    Especially effective is when the point of view shot allows us to see his opponent in the ring.  For example, in Jake's final fight with Sugar Ray Robinson we see how massive Sugar Ray appears to Jake.  The camera also uses zoom and dolly techniques to make the ring look like it stretches to infinity while at the same time making Sugar Ray appear to be extremely close and threatening.
    The most effective visual strategy in the film is the use of slow motion techniques, especially during the point of view shots.  Slow motion gives the sense of a heightened awareness: causing us to notice every detail of Jake's field of vision.  Normal movement of a shot is 24 frames per second; slow motion films at a higher fps (usually 34 to 36 fps) so that it takes longer for the frame to be projected.  Thus, this enables us to retain more of what we see and feel the tension of Jake's mounting anger.  The clip here is from Jake's final fight with Sugar Ray Robinson.  Pay close attention to the use of backlighting, slow motion, and the point of view affect.  Warning this clip is not for those with a weak stomach.                                   Click below.
    The end of the film is similar to the beginning.  Once again Jake is alone, yet he is older, overweight, and performing as a comedian.

Close-up images fill the screen as the man, now 60 pounds heavier, rehearses in his dressing room.  As in the beginning, he is warming up for a performance.  The closing shot follows Jake as he exits off screen grunting and punching make-believe opponents.  The final scene is simply of a black screen with a Bible verse that ends saying, "Once I was blind, now I can see."  Click below to see the ending of the film.

 
    The ending of this film is an interesting choice made by Scorsese.  Ending a film with a quotation is not a common occurrence.  Perhaps through this ending, he intended the viewer to question whether or not Jake had become aware and conscious of his mistakes in life.  There are also the possibility that the final title commemorates Jake's salvation and new understanding.  Or, does Jake instead believe that he now understands that it was someone else's fault for his tragic downfall?

    Through the cinematographic techniques in Raging Bull it becomes evident that what is filmed does not hold the same importance and significance of how it is filmed.  Aspects of cinematography give the images of the film meaning and encourage artistic interpretation.  If Raging Bull is looked at from only an objective viewpoint, the central theme cannot be seen.  It would only be a movie about a boxer.  The techniques described here are responsible for developing the film's meaning.  VIOLENCE in the film is not casual; it is very real and holds a deep message.  The message is one of how disturbing it is that violence and pain pervades American life.  Even our main sources of entertainment involve violence.  The final words of Jake's monologue from the beginning of the movie:  "That's entertainment," are juxtaposed with an immediately following scene of Jake getting bashed in the face by his boxing opponent.

Now that's entertainment!
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