Raging Bull

Raging Bull is another movie that's on netflix from that top 100 list.

I found it to be incredibly emotionally moving: It's emotionally moving in Jake LaMotta's abusiveness and paranoia. It's emotional in all the punching (the boxing part was actually too much for me, although it's pretty clearly fake). It's emotional in the remarkable downfall that he undergoes from middleweight champion to prisoner and from a man with (some) principles (at least with regard to fighting) to man who will fake a loss.

Jake LaMotta sees his fake loss as his downturn as a man. It's sort of funny, because even before he fakes a loss in a fight, he's a pretty terrible husband and brother. But after the faked loss and the attainment of middleweight champion, he quickly becomes a fat old man, not a good thing for a boxer (holy goodness, how did they get him to go from so thin to so fat!).

The mafia control of the fighting establishment is the tragedy of the film--regardless of how good of a fighter Jake LaMotta was, he wouldn't be allowed to compete for the championship unless the mafia said so. And then the mafia could tell him when to win and when to lose.

The treatment that women faced and endured was truly unbelievable. If a man commanded me to bring him his meal, I'm fairly certain I'd walk out immediately. Not to mention the physical abuse that the women put up with. The women took care of the food and the kids and then were told to sit quietly and look pretty and take orders. I suppose the exception is Jake's wife, Vicky, when she finally leaves him at the end.

As far as I can tell, Jake LaMotta is still alive. How weird to have a movie of your life, especially when it's a pretty sad one, while you're still alive.


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