Raging Bull

One of Scorsese's best films. In the varied career of Martin Scorsese there has always been experimentation with genre and reference. Taxi Driver, a supposed serious work about a Vietnam Vet rebelling against society, has more comment today about its noir tradition and stylistic techniques. Raging Bull borrows from 1960s Italian cinema realism, but little comment is about that. That is because the style serves the story and character. Scorsese is fully devoted to lifting the inner emotions of the film instead of sugar coding it. De Niro plays Jake La Motta to tragic effect. Scorsese allows the script to draw out the parimeters of a rise and fall story, but the true detail is in the emotions of how personal the story goes. The black and white, a staple cinematography touch for any film set in the 1950s or earlier, better represents the grittiness of La Motta's life than it does the time period. Scorsese did everything right to film this story. It's too bad the focus and talent in Raging Bull has been the exception in his Scorsese's filmography.