Raging Bull

1) Relate what was discussed in class or the text to the screening.

In class we discussed the historic relevance of the 1980's American biographical sports drama film, Raging Bull.  It was directed by Martin Scorsese and was adapted by Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin from Jake LaMotta's memoir Raging Bull: My Story. It stared Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Cathy Moriarty. It wasn't that successful at the box office, only taking in 23 million on its opening weekend which was look down upon because of the 18 million dollar budget to make the film. It was nominated for 8 Academy Awards including Best Picture, taking home the awards for Best Leading Actor for De Niro and Best Editing.

2) Find a related article (on the film, director, studio, actor/actress, artistic content, etc.) and summarize the content. You may use the library or the internet. Cite the article or copy the url to your journal entry. Summarize in your own words the related article but do not plagiarize any content.

The article I found was from http://www.shortlist.com/entertainment/30-knockout-raging-bull-facts which has 30 fun facts about he making and release of raging bull. There were a couple that really stood out to me. The casting the role of Vickie, Jakes second wife was the hardest to cast. After seeing over 200 actress, Cathy Moriarty was cast after Pesci spotted her in a night club and casting director coached her for 2 weeks before screen testing in front of Scorsese and De Niro. Remind you, she had no acting training before then. She was 18 and a student at the time. One scene that I remind very well was the scene when La Motta took a hammer to his belt and plates fell. Those plates were not suppose to fall and their actors stayed in character and improvised the lines into the movie. Shows how well both De Niro and Moriarty worked together. One more fun fact is that Joe Pesci was working as a owner of a Diner in the Bronx when he got the call to work on the film which received him a Oscar nomination and later went to to win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for Scorsese other smash film, Goodfellas.

3) Apply the article to the film screened in class. How did the article support or change the way you thought about the film, director, content, etc.?

I felt that the article was a great inside look into the world of making the film Raging Bull. You see that most of time with films its the beginning of the process of making a film is the hardest. If  don't have the right chemistry with the actors, no matter how well put together the movie looks, if the actors and actresses look a hot mess together the movie will fail. It also kind of cool to see that many scene with the actors came from improve. How one can have a conservation with other people and make it seem not script is a great skill to have. This movie also shows how even though some the actors were not well known, their were able to perform so of their best Oscar winning work.

4) Write a critical analysis of the film, including your personal opinion, formed as a result of the screening, class discussions, text material and the article. I am less interested in whether you liked or disliked a film, (although that can be part of this) than I am in your understanding of its place in film history or the contributions of the director.

I can now understand the importance Scorsese is to the life and blood of film history. I remember watching the Golden Globes one year, and Martin Scorsese was awarded a Life Time Achievement award and was sitting there think to my self... WHY? I didn't even know who he was. Then I started watching his films and seeing the reason for his life time achievement. He knows what he is doing as a director. The details that went into the Raging Bull are the main reason he has such a grip on film history. If you would go back and watch the fight scenes, the attention to the fight choreography mix with lights and sound make you feel like you were in the ring with fighters. He took you into the ring with fighters which great directors are able to do. Plus the editing and cuts which won a Oscar is very well deserved. The movie is called the best film of the 1980's. I would say its one of the best films of the century.

http://www.shortlist.com/entertainment/30-knockout-raging-bull-facts

 Plagiarism Statement: Attach this to the end of every journal assignment. CHECKLIST FOR PLAGIARISM
1) (x ) I have not handed in this assignment for any other class.
2) (x ) If I reused any information from other papers I have written for other classes, I clearly explain that in the paper.
 3) (x ) If I used any passages word for word, I put quotations around those words, or used indentation and citation within the text.
4) (x ) I have not padded the bibliography. I have used all sources cited in the bibliography in the text of the paper.
 5) (x ) I have cited in the bibliography only the pages I personally read.
6) (x ) I have used direct quotations only in cases where it could not be stated in another way. I cited the source within the paper and in the bibliography.
7) (x ) I did not so over-use direct quotations that the paper lacks interpretation or originality.
 8) (x ) I checked yes on steps 1-7 and therefore have been fully transparent about the research and ideas used in my paper.
 Name: _Antonio Amorim______ Date: ________1/28/2015 _________