Raging Bull (Martin Scorcese, 1980)

Talking about Raging Bull at this point is kind of silly - I'm guessing everything that I want to say has been said thousands of times before and better. Two main points, though. While I certainly liked the movie, I didn't love it. This is probably because of the intensely masculine nature of the film. I've never thought much of boxing in the first place, but Scorcese, the visual master that he is, really brought out the poetry and the beauty in it. I wish I had taken some stills of it, because it really is a gorgeous movie, especially the boxing scenes. The opening sequence, when DeNiro is hopping around the ring and the steam is rising from it, is one of the most beautifully photographed scenes I've ever seen. But the characters are, for the most part, so utterly unlikeable, and while that is never a problem for me liking a movie, it is their unsympathetic natures that really get me. LaMotta ends up a fat, pathetic slob, but it was by his own doing. And strangely enough, the first/last scenes (with LaMotta at the mirror, practicing his terrible act) really impressed me with how great Paul Thomas Anderson is. I shot straight up and knew that this is where the final, infamous scene in Boogie Nights came from. The way Anderson reappropriates this scene (which was, ironically enough, reappropriated by Scorcese from On the Waterfront) is really a great statement on post-modern cinema. So Anderson is this generation's Scorcese, I say. 8/10

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