Go Get 'Em Champ

Raging Bull
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
This year's Scorsese Sunday was the 1980 boxing biodrama, Raging Bull.

Show banner designed by Andrew Kern

Last night's screening was the second time that I saw Raging Bull.  The first time was when I brought it home on VHS from Blowout Video when I was a teenager.  I didn't think too highly of it then, but it's a critically acclaimed movie, so I thought that maybe seeing it on the big screen in my mid 40's might help me to see what everybody else sees in this film.

Well... I got more out of it this time around, but the best compliment that I can pay Raging Bull is that I didn't hate it.  I thought it was okay, but not the masterpiece that I've been told that it is.  The only thing that stood out to me as truly impressive was the performance of Joe Pesci as Joey LaMotta.

I suspect that the folks who decided to adapt Jake LaMotta's memoir to the big screen were motivated to capitalize on the success of Rocky before the public's interest in boxing films faded.  Martin Scorsese took the project and decided to film it in black and white in an attempt to give it an artsy vibe.  There are a few exceptions to what I'm about to say, but modern movies filmed in black and white rarely impresses me as being worthwhile.  It feels like a gimmick that filmmakers use to gloss over a story that wouldn't be all that interesting without it.

I get it... I'm supposed to love this film.  I'm supposed to gush over how Martin Scorsese is a genius and how Robert De Niro is the greatest actor of our time, but the movie wasn't all that entertaining, and it didn't make me feel anything emotionally.  It wasn't a bad movie.  It just felt kind of boring, and I don't think I'd want to see it again.