This movie is not only the next film in the Marty Scorsese box set, but it's one that makes me say, "How have I never seen this movie?" This is more severe that not having seen a Woody Allen movie before Radio Days. This is more severe than going to Vegas, finding some old lady at 2 AM who is trying to look WAY younger than she is, and getting a fresh plate of desert crabs. Okay, maybe not that severe, but it's still kind of hard for me to believe.As you probably know, or figured out by looking at the picture, this movie stars Bobby D playing...well...the same kind of character as he played in New York, New York. Both are self-centered men with a narrow vision of their own success and the ability to make the leading lady fall for them for no real reason whatsoever. Seriously, both guys persistent pricks who really didn't have as much charm as you would think. But Bobby D's performance of Jake LaMotta is so much more powerful in this movie than his performance in NY, NY. He is darker, more vicious, and way more unrelenting than I have seen from Bobby D in a while. The jealousy he displays in this film is so pervasive and destructive that you know the ultimate downfall is coming, but the only question is just how hard. Its quite the crash when dreams are unrealized and nothing is learned from it.
I know that this has been talked about at length before, but the choice to film this in black and white was so unbelievably good. The sweat, the blood, the crushed noses are all so real, so vivid, and so raw that it adds such a tremendous intangible quality to the fighting scenes that you are almost there taking the punches with Jake. And when when he's not fighting, there is such a stark tone that you get a strong feeling as to how empty a human being he became. Its not quite film noir, but there is a strong contrast that makes the dark scenes darker and the light scenes sad and empty.
I have noticed something watching these last two Scorsese films and thinking about other that I have seen, such as Goodfellas and Casino. His stories follow a pattern of what I want to call "intimate epics". Its intimate because it involves anywhere from one to three characters, but the scale and depth of their stories are tremendously vast. And the thing is, its the evolution of the characters that is so vast and not as much the plot itself. Think about it with his other movies.
2 comments:
All right...a few points here...
So, why do you say it's not quite film noir? In many ways, this movie reminds me of White Heat, a Jimmy Cagney film noir classic of a man who brings about his own downfall.
Second, I noticed you don't say anything about the lead female character. Cathy Moriarty's character, Vicki, plays a large part in fleshing out Jake's character. The supporting female characters in these dark films (Verna, in White Heat (think grapefruit)) add the dimension required to define these men by the slick treatment Jake and Cory utilize to bring these women into their lives, and the brutality that scares the shit out of the females in the end.
And finally...
Your last comment "...its the evolution of the [Martin Scorsese] characters that is so vast and not as much the plot itself."...Nope. Not seeing it. There is no "vast" evolution. We see these character's true essence at the beginning and again at end. A development, sure, a manifestation, if you will, but they all come right back to the core "character" in short order.
I say its not quite film noir for two reasons. One is subject matter. For me, film noir has some sort of criminal element involved. You know, detectives, private eyes, organized crime and the like. Raging Bull is raw and intense like noir, but for different reasons. Secondly, when I think of noir, I think of a particular lighting style that involves hard lines and strong shadows. Raging Bull essentially has natural lighting that is filmed with a high contrast ratio. Similar, but different. Close, but not quite.
As far as the female character is involved, I like to keep the article short. Sure she is important, but so is Joe Pesci and I didnt talk about him in detail. There were other aspects to the film that caught my attention more than her character and in the short space, I chose them instead.
Finally, point taken about the evolution of the characters. Raging Bull is a very good example of this lack of evolution. What I meant by all of that is that there is a vast,almost epic journey that Scorsese's characters go through in his films. But it's a mostly internal journey and not one completely dictated by external influences. Some characters, such as Liza Minelli in New York, New York, do evolve. And even though Jake LaMotta's core remains the same, the person at the end of the film is not the same person we see at the beginning.
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