TAKE ON THE WORLD WITH THE "RAGING BULL"

Ok, let’s go on star-gazing, and why not… Next in line, another classic. Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro with an Oscar ® winning performance and a heart-hitting true story in more senses than one. This is the true story of one-time middleweight champion of the world and controversial character Jake La Motta.
Jake La Motta (Robert De Niro) knows and cares for one thing in life. Boxing. Luckily he’s good at it too. Along with his brother Joey (Joe Pesci) who is his manager they have just embarked on a boxing career. Jake rises meteorically in his chosen field, there is nothing wrong with his boxing but his character… That’s a different matter. Stubborn and determined to do things (everything) his way and his way alone, La Motta is no good at politics of any kind and it is all Joey can do to keep his unruly older brother on the good side of the various “powers that be” that are interested in his career. But Jake will not be content with just being “a bit difficult”. Especially after divorcing his wife and marrying Vickie who is about 5 years his junior and very beautiful, what starts with slight insecurity about his young and beautiful wife will turn to obsession and violence. Despite the tumult going on around him, he gets his “title shot” and wins it too, becoming middleweight champion of the world. But with Jake’s already crumbling self-confidence fading fast and with Jake alienating contacts around him on a seemingly daily basis how long can he defend the title? In fact, how long can he survive at all?
I do realize that’s kind of a rhetorical question for anyone who knows the man’s actual life story but if you don’t (I didn’t) it is a question that springs to mind as you watch the film. Boxing is, of course, a destructive sport but La Motta carries the trend right through into his own life. And this makes the film – that is brilliantly made in all aspects – very, VERY difficult to watch… The actual boxing scenes may well send those faint of heart running from the room and as to the “Raging Bull” s antics outside of the ring, well, some of them may send you running too. Now, a note on the actual boxing is that Robert De Niro actually trained with Jake La Motta until La Motta deemed him fit to fight professionally. The fact that he has been able to observe La Motta for such a time and doing what he is best shows clearly in his performance – no wonder the guy won an Oscar®…
And as you can tell from the paragraph above – yes, La Motta does survive, if by the skin of his teeth. He quits professional boxing (I’ll let what he does take up remain a surprise) and gets over quite a few of his more “anti social” thought patterns. Though the film makes absolutely no bones about this being touch. There is an especially touching scene towards the end of the film (you can’t miss it) where Jake is questioning why things always seem to end up the way they do; for all his faults you can’t help feeling sorry for him as you watch… Reading up on his life I see that as of 2007 he has been married quite a few times ( I believe it was four in total) and seems to be living in New York to this day, aged 80 years of age.
Well, the film is a tough film about a very tough guy. And it’s quite possible that you will not find this film easy to watch. But I reckon it’s worth a spin, if not for De Niro’s stunning performance, because it’s the true story of one of the most intriguing “tough guys” in boxing…