Pauline Kael’s pan stands out not just as a contrarian (and hilarious) take counter to a critical majority which considers “Raging Bull” (1980) to be Martin Scorsese’s masterpiece, roundly topping best-of-decade lists. Kael’s negativity also marks a stark pivot from earlier praise, specifically her rave of “Mean Streets,” (1973) which Roger Ebert (who, in 2012, ranked “Raging Bull” in his own all-time top-10) credited with launching Scorsese’s career. That she denigrated “Raging Bull,” which opens at Film Forum Friday in a new 4K restoration, was less of a personal potshot at Scorsese than an indirect takedown of John Cassavetes. Kael deplored that independent maverick’s “psychodramas,” and her impatience with “Raging Bull” reflects Scorsese’s success in channeling to his mentor Cassavetes. The most harrowing physical and emotional violence in “Raging Bull” takes place inside the home, depicting a grim, unforgiving world in which love means always having reasons to say sorry.
Cassavetes and Scorcese’s Doubtless Influence
Scorsese has long cited Cassavetes as a guiding influence, imitating his gritty style of personal filmmaking on a shoestring budget in early features. But, it took me watching “Raging Bull” on a big screen for the first time to appreciate the thematic callbacks to Scorsese’s early employer. The domestic scenes have that terrifying, brooding sense of a zero-sum brawl. Skin is ultra thin, and stubbornness stands in the way of a kiss-and-make-up denouement. In an early, tone-setting scene, Jake LaMotta (Robert De Niro) shouts at his wife Irma (Lori Anne Flax) to not overcook the steak (“It defeats its own purpose!”) and when she’s had enough of his barbaric edicts, Irma stabs the beef and transfers it to his plate. Jake explodes, flipping the table, chasing Irma away to her room; he redirects his animus at the neighbor below, threatening to kill the man and eat his dog.
This fractured, agonizing language of love and frustration, with a complete avoidance of resolution calls to mind any number of Cassavetes films, including “Minnie and Moskowitz” (1971) — for which Scorsese served as an uncredited sound editor — and “A Woman Under the Influence” (1974). They are both domestic melodramas which highlight individuals and couples struggling with the simplest, most mundane and impossible task of communicating with others. Scorsese in “Raging Bull” pulls no punches depicting the type of marital discord, sibling rivalry, and unpredictable tempers flaring that Cassavetes examined throughout his entire oeuvre. These tormented souls abuse themselves and others, acting out against the world in lieu of dealing with their inner demons. And few screen creations are as tormented and demonic as De Niro’s Jake LaMotta.
De Niro’s Only ‘Best Actor’ Oscar Grab
A ticking time bomb inside and especially outside the ring, LaMotta is a beastly, tragic figure of his own making. De Niro famously gained sixty pounds (and a prosthetic nose) to play the older LaMotta, delivering an unforgettable, haunting performance and winning his only ‘Best Actor’ Oscar. At that ceremony, Gena Rowlands was nominated for ‘Best Actress’ for her turn as the tough-as-nails gun moll in her husband Cassavetes’ “Gloria” (1980). While LaMotta calls out spirit animale Marlon Brando directly (quoting “On the Waterfront’s” “Contender” monologue) in “Raging Bull,” a more oblique comparison — or really, contrast — for his LaMotta would be Rowlands’ Mabel Longhetti in “A Woman Under the Influence.” Rowlands’ searing, uncompromising portrait earned the actress her first ‘Best Actress’ nomination the very same night in which De Niro won his first Oscar, for ‘Best Supporting Actor,’ in “The Godfather: Part II.”
Mabel is always in motion, sometimes charming but often alarming those around her with offbeat quirks, misplaced jokes, an eagerness to please. At an impromptu spaghetti breakfast, she tells husband Nick (Peter Falk) after a fight that she’ll be anything that he wants her to be, to just tell her what she ought to be. When Mabel’s behavior becomes increasingly worrisome to her family, Nick has her committed to a hospital, and he collapses under the weight of his household care-taking responsibilities. Jake, meanwhile, relies mostly on his brother/trainer/best friend Joey (Joe Pesci) to tell him what he needs to hear. Joey defaults to assuring Jake that his problems would be solved if he just focused on boxing, that his wife is what’s driving him crazy. Both Cassavetes and Scorsese share an unwavering loyalty to these antiheroes, even when their self-destructive behavior leads to irreversible damage.
Poetic Boxing Bloodbaths and Domestic Turmoil
Jake is a middleweight tornado, a one-time boxing champion who lost to Sugar Ray Robinson (Johnny Barnes) four times — but Jake reminds Ray that he never knocked him down. Jake’s his own most formidable foe, tearing down the life surrounding him. He cheats on Irma with 15-year old Vicki (Cathy Moriarty) from the neighborhood. Then, that marriage implodes when Jake’s unfounded jealousy boils over in a shattering sequence; it begins by Jake grilling his brother, Joey, about a fight he had at a club, and ends with Jake knocking Vicki to the ground with a brutal right hook, and nearly beating Joey to death in front of his wife and children. A parallel scene in “A Woman Under the Influence” likewise involves the whole family; it reaches a fever pitch with Mabel attempting suicide, in one of the most grueling scenes in the history of the cinema.
Neither “A Woman” nor “Raging Bull” — both running north of two hours — gives the audience much room to breathe. In fact, “Raging Bull’s” poetic boxing bloodbaths — in lush black & white — serve as a relief, even with the thunderous chatter of the crowd and jarring use of animal noises (the roar of a lion, the shriek of a bird) accentuating the ferocity of the fighters’ blows. Mayhem is also the steady state of a Cassavetes film, with levity coming unnaturally, and typically at the expense of a poor soul in a pitiful state of distress, such as lonesome Zeimo (Val Avery) in “Minnie and Moskowitz” (1971) who abruptly goes from an uneven tirade to hysterical tears on a blind date with Minnie (Rowlands). Internalizing or expressing intense emotions is not a strong suit of these folks.
Playing at Film Forum from April 14th-27th
LaMotta sobs uncontrollably at two points in the film: when he throws a fight in order to appease his mafia backers and at the end when he’s arrested in Miami. It’s a vexing experience, watching this person we’ve been conditioned to detest, losing control and revealing some hard-earned vulnerability. And it represents the most effective provocation of “Raging Bull” or the Cassavetes films that influenced it. It forces the audience to reckon with these broken individuals, offering no respite or option to look away. We might pity Zeimo, or even Jake on occasion, but it’s too much to handle, to imagine having to console a grieving or grief-stricken man-baby. So, instead we laugh, relieved that it’s fiction, and it’s at a distance. Kael detested these “macho clowns,” but — Scorsese and Cassavetes might argue — isn’t that the point?
De Niro persuaded Scorsese to make “Raging Bull” when the director was in the hospital, bleeding internally and near death after years of what critic Glenn Kenny called a “long-term drug binge.” Scorsese’s resulting penance is one of the most beautiful ugly films ever, a punishing opera showcasing an irredeemable lout who can’t separate his career and personal life, and both spiral out of control with a velocity that matches the disorienting, kinetic energy on-screen. Put another way, it’s Scorsese sparring with his own devils and influences, paying tribute to Cassavetes, while turning his own career and life around with a fifteen-round knockout. It’s a bruising epic that shares a kinship not with the formulaic studio boxing picture, but with those relentless dumb f–ck dramas that Cassavetes perfected. It might not be pretty, but to quote Miami Jake: that’s entertainment!
The director-approved new 4K restoration of “Raging Bull,” will have its U.S. premiere at Film Forum, and screen from April 14 – April 27.
