Raging Bull

About Raging Bull

Raging Bull is a 1980 film directed by Martin Scorsese, adapted by Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin from the memoir Raging Bull: My Story. It stars Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta, a temperamental and paranoid but tenacious boxer who alienates himself from his friends and family. Also featured in the film are Joe Pesci as Joey, La Motta's brother and manager, and Cathy Moriarty as his abused wife. The film features supporting roles from Nicholas Colasanto (who would eventually play the character "Coach" on the TV sitcom Cheers), Theresa Saldana, and Frank Vincent, who has starred in many films directed by Martin Scorsese. After receiving mixed initial reviews, it went on to garner a high critical reputation and is now widely regarded as one of the greatest movies ever made, along with the pair's other famed collaboration from that era, Taxi Driver (1976). It is one of three films that has been named to the National Film Registry in its first year of eligibility.

Raging Bull was a project brought to Martin Scorsese by his friend and collaborator Robert De Niro. De Niro discovered the book upon which the film is based and wanted to play the title character. The initial screenplay adaptation was written by Scorsese's friend Mardik Martin, who had co-written Mean Streets. It was reportedly a Rashomon-style drama with many different points of view being presented. In the end, this approach was abandoned in favor of a more straightforward narrative written by Paul Schrader, who had written Taxi Driver. Studio executives at United Artists were initially reluctant to finance the project as they feared that the extreme profanity and violence in the screenplay would draw an "X" from the MPAA ratings board, thus the final draft of the screenplay was written, uncredited, by De Niro and Scorsese themselves.

Scorsese has acknowledged that he was deeply involved in cocaine abuse before the making of the film. He has stated that Robert De Niro saved his life by insisting on Scorsese's continued involvement in the production. Scorsese has also claimed that the raw emotional quality of the film and its theme of redemption were a result of his struggle to recover his life through the production of the film.