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Raging Bull

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TVTItem
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Raging Bull
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Raging Bull is a 1980 film, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro. It revolves around middleweight boxer Jake LaMotta (De Niro), a man who is consumed by his anger, paranoia, and shame.The film begins in 1964, as we see an overweight, aging LaMotta, now a comedian, practicing his routine. The scene then changes to 1941, as LaMotta boxes and throws his fights at the behest of the mafia. His brother and manager, Joey LaMotta (Joe Pesci), does his best to support Jake and get him a chance at success. At the same time, Jake seduces Vikki (Cathy Moriarty), a 15-year-old girl he met at a Bronx public pool.While he catches a break and wins a string of victories, LaMotta becomes increasingly paranoid that Vikki is cheating on him, and becomes more and more abusive. The rest of the film details the aftermath in the following years after LaMotta has retired, as he spirals downward ever further.The boxing fights themselves are notable for their cinematography. Run entirely on the Rule of Drama, they look nothing like actual bouts. One Fight Unscene consists of two still frames: LaMotta with his fist drawn back, and him standing triumphant over his downed opponent. Additionally, sponges filled with fake blood were inserted into the boxing gloves, spraying the fighters and the ropes with amounts of fluid previously unseen in a sports movie.While critical reception was mixed at the time of its release, and it was passed up for Best Picture and Best Director at the Oscars in favor of Ordinary People, Raging Bull has since become a critical favorite, and is regularly regarded as one of Scorsese's crowning achievements and one of the best movies of all time. It won De Niro his second Oscar (this time for Best Actor, following his Best Supporting Actor win for The Godfather Part II), and his performance is frequently cited as one of the greatest in the history of cinema.A sequel was long in Development Hell (with LaMotta's involvement), but eventually under the threat of a lawsuit from MGM, the title was changed from Raging Bull II to The Bronx Bull in order to disassociate itself from the original. The film stars William Forsythe as the older Jake LaMotta, Morjean Aria as a young LaMotta, and has a supporting cast including the likes of Joe Mantegna, Tom Sizemore, Penelope Anne Miller, Natasha Henstridge, Frank Vincent, Alicia Witt, Ray Wise, and James Russo.
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2024-01-26T12:29:47Z
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2024-01-26T12:29:47Z
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Off-the-Shelf FX
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Off-the-Shelf FX: Hershey's chocolate sauce was used for blood.
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Creator Cameo
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Creator Cameo: Martin Scorsese is the usher in the last scene telling LaMotta it's time to come out.
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Your Mom
 Raging Bull / int_1649e053
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Your Mom: Joey gets like this when he is (presumably) talking to Sal on the phone, unaware that Jake is on the line instead: Early on, when replying to his neighbor Larry's complaints, Jake delivers this little gem:
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Redemption Quest
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Redemption Quest: The very end of the film implies that Jake having learnt and accepted that he was a jerk decides to become a better person.
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Historical Villain Downgrade
 Raging Bull / int_18baa751
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Historical Villain Downgrade: When he watched the film with one of his ex-wives, Jake LaMotta he asked her: "was I really that bad?" She replied "you were worse!" The movie supposedly omits LaMotta's worst excesses. In his autobiography, ghost-written by Peter Savage, he admits to raping a woman and hitting a man with a lead pipe whilst mugging him. LaMotta believed he had killed the man, only to discover years later that his victim survived. In any case, the source for this, the "autobiography" was mostly written by Peter Savage, Jake's friend (and a model for Joey, a composite of Jake's brother, Savage and one other friend) and it was written largely to gain a movie deal and was filled with deliberately sensationalist, over-the-top material.
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Title Drop
 Raging Bull / int_18d15922
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Title Drop: "The middleweight champion. The big dog. The raging bull..."
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 Raging Bull / int_1fd2efc9
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Byronic Hero
 Raging Bull / int_1fd2efc9
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Byronic Hero: Jake is a Deconstruction; his flaws are simply too much to bear and instead of coming across as inspiring, he's more pathetic and obnoxious.
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 Raging Bull / int_230d64
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Screw the Rules, I Have Money!
 Raging Bull / int_230d64
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Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Subverted. Jake was told that his rape charge would go away if he paid ten grand to get the charges dropped, but since he didn't have the money and his friends abandoned him, he attempted to sell the jewels from his championship belt, which the pawnshop owner said were worthless, as the belt itself was of higher value.
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As the Good Book Says...
 Raging Bull / int_2439b588
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As the Good Book Says...: Right before the end credits, the film displays a quotation from The Gospel of John.
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 Raging Bull / int_25524784
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No-Holds-Barred Beatdown
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No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: The boxing matches, particularly his final match with Sugar Ray Robinson. Joey gives Salvy a pretty good one too.
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Good News, Bad News
 Raging Bull / int_29c480a3
comment
Good News, Bad News: What Tommy Como told Joey about the mafia's support for Jake. He'll get the title shot, but he needs to take a dive first.
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 Raging Bull / int_2af6bbeb
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Break the Haughty
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Break the Haughty: The premise of this film, showing the repercussions incurred on Jake LaMotta because of his insecurity and anger, ultimately changing him as a human being.
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Cluster F-Bomb
 Raging Bull / int_35a858b3
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Cluster F-Bomb: To say that it was one of the earliest films to have at least 100 usage of the f-words, such as during Joey's Your Mom discussion on the phone, doesn't even begin to describe it.
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 Raging Bull / int_3d5c5deb
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Flat Character
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Flat Character: Joey's wife Lenora has literally no personality other than being Joey's wife and barely even says anything. Jake and Vikki's children also fit this trope as all of their scenes are around at least one of their parents, heck, we don't even know what their names are!
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 Raging Bull / int_40cc0c7e
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Bittersweet Ending
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Bittersweet Ending: Jake at the end is shown to have a promising stand-up comedian career, but in the end he's completely ostracized from his wife, kids, and brother, and he pawned off the title he worked so hard to get in order to bail himself out of prison. Earn Your Happy Ending : As stated by Martin Scorsese, Jake at the end has genuinely accepted who he is and is truly a changed man at the end, and so is, paradoxically, happier having lost everything than when he had it all. The Bible quotation doesn't hurt.
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 Raging Bull / int_41d50d81
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Big Brother Bully
 Raging Bull / int_41d50d81
comment
Big Brother Bully: Jake to Joey.
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 Raging Bull / int_4583a262
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Shirtless Scene
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Shirtless Scene: It's about a boxer.
 Raging Bull / int_4583a262
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 Raging Bull / int_4604fd4d
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Worthy Opponent
 Raging Bull / int_4604fd4d
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Worthy Opponent: This seems to ultimately be how Jake and Sugar Ray Robinson regard each other. They fought six times, with Robinson winning five of the bouts, but LaMotta's win marked Robinson's first professional defeat after 40 victories.
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 Raging Bull / int_4bc2095b
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One Head Taller
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One Head Taller: This effect is present whenever 5' 3" Joe Pesci is in the same shot as Robert De Niro or Cathy Moriarty, who are both 5' 9".
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 Raging Bull / int_50b9b3d0
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Crazy Jealous Guy
 Raging Bull / int_50b9b3d0
comment
Crazy Jealous Guy: Again, Jake. His jealousy fits often (if not always) came out of nowhere and from the slightest persuasions. In the words of his brother, he's "crackin' up." How crazy is he? His wife mentions off hand that one of his future opponents is "pretty good looking." Jake's response? Give him a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown and specifically breaking his nose so he won't be so pretty anymore.
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 Raging Bull / int_5313c266
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Bookends
 Raging Bull / int_5313c266
comment
Book Ends: It starts and ends with Jake preparing for a routine after his retirement.
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Vertigo Effect
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comment
Vertigo Effect: On Ray Robinson before Robinson finishes destroying LaMotta in Jake's last fight.
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 Raging Bull / int_590eb583
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Domestic Abuse
 Raging Bull / int_590eb583
comment
Domestic Abuse: Jake. Once he knocked his wife out with one hit, in his brother's residence, just moments after attacking his brother in front of his family.
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 Raging Bull / int_6056f853
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Homoerotic Subtext
 Raging Bull / int_6056f853
comment
Homoerotic Subtext: All over the place.
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 Raging Bull / int_63b02752
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Hair-Trigger Temper
 Raging Bull / int_63b02752
comment
Hair-Trigger Temper: Jake LaMotta for sure. And since the poster boy for this trope Joe Pesci plays Joey, he gets a couple of moments of this as well.
 Raging Bull / int_63b02752
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 Raging Bull / int_6ea4cf8c
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Jailbait Taboo
 Raging Bull / int_6ea4cf8c
comment
Jailbait Taboo: Vikki is just 15 when Jake (who's 20 at the time) starts seeing her. Much later on, Jake's downfall in Miami happens when he canoodles a bit with a young lady at his club who says she's 21, and introduces her to some male customers. Turns out she was actually 14 and using a fake ID, so the vice squad busts him and he gets incarcerated.
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 Raging Bull / int_71152dd
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One Dialogue, Two Conversations
 Raging Bull / int_71152dd
comment
One Dialogue, Two Conversations: An extended Played for Drama example in the scene where Jake suspects that Joey and Vikki are having an affair. Joey, totally taken aback at Jake's paranoia, refuses to discuss the issue, which Jake takes as confirmation that his suspicions are true. Then when Jake confronts her about it, she sarcastically tells him she's slept with every man on their block, exasperatedly trying to get him to see how ridiculous he's being. But Jake is Sarcasm-Blind and completely believes her.
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 Raging Bull / int_75e2bf23
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Chiaroscuro
 Raging Bull / int_75e2bf23
comment
Chiaroscuro: The opening shot, the scene where Jake is training in a steam room, other scenes.
 Raging Bull / int_75e2bf23
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 Raging Bull / int_77a495f1
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Historical Badass Upgrade
 Raging Bull / int_77a495f1
comment
Historical Badass Upgrade: Paul Schrader, who wrote the screenplay, felt that film implies that LaMotta was a more significant figure in boxing and sports than his career otherwise supports, and ultimately elevated a mediocrity to a level of fame he otherwise wouldn't deserve.
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 Raging Bull / int_80251be3
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How We Got Here
 Raging Bull / int_80251be3
comment
How We Got Here: See Book Ends.
 Raging Bull / int_80251be3
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Raging Bull / int_80251be3
 Raging Bull / int_805deb6e
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Small Role, Big Impact
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comment
Small Role, Big Impact: The underage girl at the club who claimed she was 21 but was really 15. Because of her vague but likely illegal interactions with the grown men at Jake's club,note which is heavily implied to have been rape/sexual assault or molestation he went from merely being washed-up to outright disgraced and imprisoned.
 Raging Bull / int_805deb6e
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 Raging Bull / int_8411ab92
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Red Oni, Blue Oni
 Raging Bull / int_8411ab92
comment
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Jake is a hothead, Joey is restrained. A very big switch from later pairings of De Niro and Pesci. Also in the boxing ring. Jake is the hard-nosed bruiser, and his archrival Sugar Ray Robinson is the more polished, athletic boxer.
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 Raging Bull / int_86f4f393
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Stating the Simple Solution
 Raging Bull / int_86f4f393
comment
Stating the Simple Solution: Desperate for money, Jake bursts into the house and smashes up his championship belt so he can sell the jewels from it. The jeweller points out if he'd just brought along the intact belt he could have sold it for a lot more money.
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 Raging Bull / int_898ff050
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Villain Protagonist
 Raging Bull / int_898ff050
comment
Villain Protagonist: Jake himself, full stop.
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 Raging Bull / int_8ae880f7
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Deconstruction
 Raging Bull / int_8ae880f7
comment
Deconstruction: Of the conventional Hollywood Biopic (by showing the character Warts and All, avoiding Historical Hero Upgrade and refusing to sanitize the ugliness) and the sports movie genre (no, "success" in the boxing ring doesn't solve your personal problems or win you the love of your life) and the concept of redemption (it can sometimes take years for people to accept that they've done something wrong and even then they can't count on other people accepting that they have changed). More specifically, the movie shows the physical and psychological toll a career in sports involves, especially one like boxing. All of those punches on different parts of your body will take a toll on you, the effort it takes to maintain physique is such that on retirement, Jake really lets himself go. Likewise, on retirement, boxers have to rest on their winnings and income or find another means of income because the sporting career only lasts until you approach 40. It also shows that as much skill as boxing involves, sportsmen are nothing without the managers, coaches and institutions that will get them their big goal, advise them on how to protect their money and generally prevent them from making fools of themselves. Jake LaMotta learns far too late about this at which point he has alienated all of his friends and family.
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Nasal Trauma
 Raging Bull / int_8cd96e6c
comment
Nasal Trauma: Vikki absently mentions that his next opponent, Tony Janiro, has a pretty face... and Jake takes it personally: when they meet in the ring, the Bronx Bull goes straight for Janiro's face and doesn't stop until he's satisfied. Close-up shots show the poor bastard's nose being squished flat with a loud wet crunch, gushing blood everywhere.
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Sir Swears-a-Lot
 Raging Bull / int_8fd7af48
comment
Sir Swears-a-Lot: Jake and his younger brother Joey — especially the latter — drop a lot of F-bombs and other forms of profanity.
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 Raging Bull / int_957e5fc2
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Villainous Breakdown
 Raging Bull / int_957e5fc2
comment
Villainous Breakdown: Jake has one when he gets arrested and starts punching and banging the walls and crying in despair.
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 Raging Bull / int_9591377d
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Heel Realization
 Raging Bull / int_9591377d
comment
Heel Realization: It takes several decades, and some prison time, a lot of wall punching before Jake confronts that he's been a jerk. It is this quality that makes him among the most sympathetic Scorsese anti-heros.
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 Raging Bull / int_9710c9a7
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Biopic
 Raging Bull / int_9710c9a7
comment
Of the conventional Hollywood Biopic (by showing the character Warts and All, avoiding Historical Hero Upgrade and refusing to sanitize the ugliness) and the sports movie genre (no, "success" in the boxing ring doesn't solve your personal problems or win you the love of your life) and the concept of redemption (it can sometimes take years for people to accept that they've done something wrong and even then they can't count on other people accepting that they have changed).
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 Raging Bull / int_99f2522e
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Hit Me, Dammit!
 Raging Bull / int_99f2522e
comment
Hit Me, Dammit!: In an earlier scene between Jake and Joey.
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Playing the Heart Strings
 Raging Bull / int_9aca7084
comment
Playing the Heart Strings: The soundtrack.
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 Raging Bull / int_9d17b859
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Made of Iron
 Raging Bull / int_9d17b859
comment
Made of Iron: Jake beats his fists and head against concrete and doesn't come out worse for wear. Possibly justified, as the real life Jake may have had the hardest head in boxing history. The fact that Lightning Bruiser Sugar Ray Robinson couldn't knock him down in real life despite administering a vicious No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, (in a fight that was later dubbed "The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre", no less) says a lot. He also ended up living to age 95 despite all the damage he took.note While the movie portrays LaMotta as a brawler who took a lot of punishment, LaMotta was actually a better boxer and had a better defense than credited. As the real LaMotta once remarked to an interviewer, "if I took as many punches as they say, do you think I'd be here talking to you now?" He does cry out "My hand!" after he's done punching the concrete.
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 Raging Bull / int_a1a1491e
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Homage
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comment
Homage: The I Coulda Been a Contender! monologue from On the Waterfront.
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More specifically, the movie shows the physical and psychological toll a career in sports involves, especially one like boxing. All of those punches on different parts of your body will take a toll on you, the effort it takes to maintain physique is such that on retirement, Jake really lets himself go. Likewise, on retirement, boxers have to rest on their winnings and income or find another means of income because the sporting career only lasts until you approach 40.
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Classical Anti-Hero
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Classical Anti-Hero: Jake
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Deliberate Values Dissonance
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Deliberate Values Dissonance: Jake and Joey are just as racist and homophobic as you'd expect the average Italian-American from 1940's New York to be. Joey calls an African-American fighter a "moulie," while Jake chides Joey by telling him he punches like he "takes it up the ass." Hell, even Jake's first wife throws around homophobic slurs when she's mad!
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Fatal Flaw
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Fatal Flaw: Just as in Greek tragedy, the same trait that brings Jake initial success (his skill in physical violence) is the same one which brings about his downfall (as his impulsive violence against his friends, family and loved ones ultimately results in driving them all away from him). A less literal reading of his flaws suggests Jake's jealousy is what consumes him and destroys everything he has. Violence is simply the expression and the means. Early in the film Jake gets downcast about never getting the recognition of, or being able to even fight, world heavyweight champion Joe Louis, who Jake is "sure" he could beat. His jealousy doesn't stop at boxing, and shows itself much more than his physical violence - which is remarkable for a boxing film.
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It's All About Me
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It's All About Me: Jake is supremely self-centered, which, when paired with a Hair-Trigger Temper, crazy jealousy and paranoia leads him to alienate everyone close to him.
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Splash of Color
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Splash of Color: LaMotta's home movies. And the title of the film itself in the credit sequence.
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Realistic Diction Is Unrealistic
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Realistic Diction Is Unrealistic: A very strong aversion, with the leads often mumbling or talking quickly.
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Deliberately Monochrome
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Deliberately Monochrome: The movie is in black and white, except for a sequence of home movies shot in color. Scorsese has stated that he decided to film it this way at least in part because fellow director Michael Powell, who happened to be viewing the initial (color) footage of De Niro as LaMotta with him, pointed out that the gloves De Niro was wearing were the wrong color for the period. Scorsese also revealed in a contemporary interview with Film Comment that he wanted to ensure that the film preserved better over the decades, as it was produced around the time when color fading in old Eastmancolor prints (which resulted in them looking unnaturally pink because of the yellow and cyan dyes degrading) became widely known to filmmakers. Despite the home movie sequences being shot in color, Scorsese didn't have anything to worry about, as they were shot on the same kinds of reversal film stocks used for actual home movies at the time (reversal stocks don't suffer from the same fading problem due to the dyes being far more stable than in Eastmancolor, and indeed wider-gauge reversal stock would ultimately supplant Eastmancolor in the film industry as a result of the dye degradation issue).
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Hypocrite
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Hypocrite: Jake's Crazy Jealous Guy antics over Vikki are made worst when you remember that Jake both cheated on and later left his wife for her. Near the end of the movie he starts making out with various women in his club.
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Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job
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Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: The movie's Framing Device.
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Lightning Bruiser
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Possibly justified, as the real life Jake may have had the hardest head in boxing history. The fact that Lightning Bruiser Sugar Ray Robinson couldn't knock him down in real life despite administering a vicious No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, (in a fight that was later dubbed "The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre", no less) says a lot. He also ended up living to age 95 despite all the damage he took.note While the movie portrays LaMotta as a brawler who took a lot of punishment, LaMotta was actually a better boxer and had a better defense than credited. As the real LaMotta once remarked to an interviewer, "if I took as many punches as they say, do you think I'd be here talking to you now?"
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Artistic License
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Artistic License: The boxing sequences are very stylized. Each sequence is shot differently from the last and since the camera was in the ring with the actors, this meant it was much bigger than an actual boxing ring. The sequences used a lot of distortion effects to provide a psychological sense of "being in the ring". Scorsese said that he was bored with the conventional approach of shooting boxing from outside the ring as seen in newsreel and sports broadcasts which is why he went in the opposite direction.
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Mama Bear
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Mama Bear: Eventually, Vikki gets so frustrated over her husband's constant abuse and terrorizing, she decides to divorce him, move away, bring her children with her, and threatened to call the police if he showed his face at the house again. How's that for dedication to protecting your loved ones?
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Composite Character
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Composite Character: Joey LaMotta is a combination of the real Joey LaMotta and Jake's friend, Pete Petrella.
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Jerkass
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Jerkass: Only for about 10-20% of the whole film does Jake not act like a jerk in some way. LaMotta himself has said he never realized what a terrible person he was until he saw the movie. When he asked his ex-wife if he was really that bad, she told him that he was even worse.
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Would Hit a Girl
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Would Hit a Girl: Jake physically abuses Vikki whenever he gets pissed at her.
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Earn Your Happy Ending
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Earn Your Happy Ending : As stated by Martin Scorsese, Jake at the end has genuinely accepted who he is and is truly a changed man at the end, and so is, paradoxically, happier having lost everything than when he had it all. The Bible quotation doesn't hurt.
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Raging Bull

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

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Those Two Actors / int_7a63f7
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Your Mom / int_7a63f7
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