Raging Bull

A detailed Summary of Raging Bull

"Raging Bull" (1980) is not a so much a film about boxing but more of a story about a psychotically jealous, sexually insecure borderline homosexual, caged animal of a man, who encourages pain and suffering in his life as almost a form of reparation. Martin Scorsese's masterpiece of a film drags you down into the seedy filth stenched world of former middleweight boxing champion Jake "The Bronx Bull" LaMotta. Masterfully he paints the picture of a beast whose sole drive is not boxing but an insatiable obsessive jealously over his wife and his fear of his own underling sexuality. The movie broke new ground with its brutal unadulterated no-holds-bard look at the vicious sport of boxing by bringing the camera into the ring, giving the viewer the most realistic, primal, and brutal boxing scenes ever filmed. With blood and sweat spraying, flashbulbs' bursting at every blow Scorsese gives the common man an invitation into the square circle where only the hardest trained gladiators dare to venture.

The movie opens just as it ends, the camera pans down to the pavement revealing a sign outside the Barbizon Plaza Theater: "An Evening with Jake LaMotta Tonight 8:30." The film then cuts to a punched out overweight shot of LaMotta babbl

Already in the first two main scenes of the movie, the animal that is Jake LaMotta has already reared its nasty head. In brutal displays during the Reeves fight, the steak scene with his wife, the yelling match with his neighbor and his childish punching challenge with his brother, Jake LaMotta has already proved himself a genuine psychotic beast. Along with the animal nature, an underlying sexual insecurity is beginning to rise to the surface. Jakes obsession with his girl hands gives the notion of sexual inadequacy, and homosexual tendencies seem to become apparent when he begins to taunt his brother by calling him faggot and telling him, he takes it up the ass.

"Raging Bull" is the most brutal and painful portrait of a man I have ever seen. You almost feel sorry for this animal of a wife beater whose sexual inadequacy and paralyzing jealousy drive him past the point of insanity. Jake LaMotta prided himself for not being knocked down in the ring. Even when being crucified by" Sugar" Ray Robinson you wonder why wont this fool just save himself and go down. By the end of the film you begin to get a sense of what was really driving him in the ring. Was it his animal instinct or his immovable pride? No, he was so deeply wounded inside that it hurt far too much to ever let the physical pain stop even for just a second.

Even after these childish rages and stupid attempts at proving his manhood, I still did not buy into the whole suppress homosexual theory. That was until the first pool scene. Jake appears at the city pool, walks up to the concession stand and orders a Coke. He sits down and begins to grill Joey about a blonde bombshell named Vicky while he sips his Coke through a straw. Up to this point the scene seems innocent enough right, or does it? He and Joey are just checking out the babes at the pool like every straight man does right? Wait, throw it in reverse for a moment, Jake and Joey are sitting at a table, that's harmless. Jake begins to ask Joey about the beautiful blonde poolside, also harmless. Jake sips his Coke through a straw. Hold on stop the music, a straw, a straw, no self-respecting straight man sips his coke through a straw. Drink it from the bottle yes, but drink it from a straw never. No real man more or less a boxer the epitome of manliness drinks through a straw. This small scene on its own completely changed my perception of how LaMotta is portrayed.

The sick sadomasochistic conversation Jake has with Salvy further proves LaMotta is nothing but a twisted animal, and further questioning

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Approximate Word count = 1714
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Movies