Scorcese's big black and white, based on the autobiography of prize fighter Jack La Motta, isn't just a straight forward sport movie. In LaMotta's character, one of De Niro's most memorable roles--not least of which he gained 60 pounds for it--we have a man is not only a monster in the ring, he is a monster out of the ring too. He is filled with anger, is easily enraged, is prone is completely implacable jealousy and bouts of dangerous paranoia. These "qualities" La Motta writes in his own book helped make him into a real champion prize fighter, but the movie is clear about where it stands on the matter by it's beginning. In the opening shot, an old La Motta (De Niro) is pathetically rehearsing his stand up role in a dressing room--alone. So the viewer knows right away where this going to end up, and it is not pretty or easy. The art of the telling the true story of this man, lies how he grinds his way into the painful place over two decades.
After the rather uncomfortable opening, the film quickly moves back to 1941, right the to La Motta in the ring. He clearly wins the fight, but a fix is in by a local mob boss and the judges rule the half unconscious opponent the win; a fight quickly breaks out. Everyone, including women, get involved, and no amount of the playing of the National Anthem by the ring organist is going to help. This sets the tone of the film; this isn't just a movie about boxing, about punches thrown in sport; it is a movie about smaller violence amongst larger violence and how some can't distinguish sport from true harm, and easily cross the line from bread winner to criminal.
Although this is not his first black and white film, it can be argued that it is his greatest. One thing, oddly, that gives the black and white such a lush look, ironically is that it isn't all in black and white, some parts are in color, for added emphasis. This may sound like a cheap ploy, but done skillfully by a filmmaker of Scorcese's caliber, it works. The color home movies, for example, help lend an air that everything is fine, but they are facades. Scorcese also uses them in an unconventional way; to help move the time frame forward without making a clean skip in time. The color movies are juxtaposed with title cards of La Motta's fights along the way, with short action films of La Motta pounding the crap out of everyone. The other use of color does come in the ring--to show La Motta covered in blood, signalling his downfall and the beginning of his slide into personal isolation. It wouldn't work if it wasn't blood that needed color for emphasis, because it is blood, there is a kind of seriousness to it, that would just look kooky otherwise. (I can only wonder if he was inspired by the strange color sequences of blood in the William Castle camp classic The Tingler!).
It was Robert De Niro who read La Motta's book while filming The Godfather Part 2 in 1974. Although he thought the book was not well written and didn't like the writing style; he did find La Motta in interesting character and thought a biographical film about his life would be a good movie, and he wanted to play La Motta himself. He took the book and the idea to everyone he could get to listen to him, including Martin Scorcese, but no one agreed with him that it would work. He kept at Scorcese, and finally got him to agree to shoot the film in 1980.
A couple of pieces of trivia: De Niro accidentally broke Joe Pesci's rib while they were filming one of the sparring shoots.
The unique sounds of punches and camera flashes were made by squashing melons and tomatoes in the first instance, and firing gunshots for the later. The sound effects were so effective that the original tapes they had be recorded on were destroyed after editing.
This, remarkably, was voted 3rd greatest sport film of all time by ESPN behind Bull Durham (1988) in second place, and, of course, Rocky (1976) in first.
"You can't fucking eat and drink like an animal. You can't keep doin' that!" --Joey La Motta (Joe Pesci) to Jake La Motta (Robert De Niro)
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| Actual photo of the real La Motta |
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