Released in 1980, Raging Bull is not a movie about winning. It is a movie about wrath, paranoia, and self-destruction. Starring Robert De Niro in an Oscar-winning performance as middleweight boxer Jake LaMotta, the film is a stark, black-and-white descent into the psyche of a man who built his career on taking a beating so he could give one back.
I. Introduction
The journey to the screen was almost as turbulent as the life of its subject. The film is based on the memoir of real-life middleweight boxing champion Jake LaMotta. However, LaMotta’s book, Raging Bull: My Story , was originally optioned in the 1970s with the intention of being a straightforward, gritty action vehicle—something the studio hoped would capitalize on the success of Rocky . Raging Bull
: His domestic life is plagued by paralyzing sexual insecurity and an animalistic need for control . His suspicion regarding his wife, Vickie, and his brother, Joey, eventually leads to the destruction of his family. Released in 1980, Raging Bull is not a movie about winning
The final shot of the film is the key to its meaning. A shirtless, overweight LaMotta stands in a dressing room, practicing a monologue from On the Waterfront . He punches the concrete wall, reciting Marlon Brando’s famous line: “I coulda been a contender.” But unlike Brando’s Terry Malloy, LaMotta was a contender—he was a champion. His tragedy is not that he failed to achieve greatness, but that achieving greatness did nothing to save him from himself. He then looks directly into the camera and mimics shadowboxing, quoting a biblical passage he has mangled: “I’m the boss… I’m not a animal.” The lie is complete. He is both boss and animal, and he has no idea how to be anything else. However, LaMotta’s book, Raging Bull: My Story ,
, underwent a turbulent drafting process that mirrored the protagonist Jake LaMotta’s own volatility. Originally initiated by Robert De Niro, who was captivated by LaMotta's autobiography, the script evolved through three distinct phases to become the definitive character study of toxic masculinity and self-destruction. The Evolution of the Screenplay The development of the Raging Bull