Raging Bull Film Analysis

Visually, Raging Bull is close to an artistic disaster. The visual style adopted by director Martin Scorsese and cinematographer, Michael Chapman seems to be falling apart. For instance, the last fight scene in which Sugar Ray Robinson pummels Jake La Motta depicts ludicrous images; however, the continuity editing allows viewers to make sense of it. During this shot, Scorsese shows a punch from the perspective of Robinson’s glove as it strikes La Motta’s face. In the seconds that follow, we see blood spray out of La Motta’s head, splattering the spectators. This bizarre shot makes the blood splatter look like a sprinkler, as if a bucket load of blood came out of Jake's head. The reason why this shot is so paradoxical is because of the slow
According to our textbook, the Hollywood system offers filmmakers a “ready-made, time-tested blueprint for keeping spatial relations coherent, orienting spectators and maintaining a consistent flow of narrative information” (Phillips 308). The reason why this is important to note is; Raging Bull rejects many of these tried and true methods, yet still offers an aesthetically exciting alternative to Hollywood’s system. What the film takes from the conventional structure of Hollywood, such as classical narration structure, continuity, and realism, seem to offer stability in a film with sharp
This medium shot is confined by the walls as well as the presence of Joey and the trainers. As Jake finishes preparing, the camera begins to track backward into the hallway. During the reverse tracking shot, we see Joey in the foreground, Jake in the middle, and the trainers in the background. What’s so brilliant about this section of the shot is, it adopts the look of a performance documentary and is reinforced when we start to hear the cheering fans. However, when the camera ducks into a corner and allows Jake to pass, the reverse tracking becomes a forward tracking shot. In a split second, the viewer becomes one of those fans. Tracking behind him, we see the illuminated ring, in the distance, and the applauding crowd. Jake jogs to left side of the ring, and the camera moves to the right, ending with the camera sweeping through the air, showing the cheering crowd and the fighter. At this point, the camera is not limited by the perspective of a single individual; instead, it has adopted the perspective of an omniscient viewer. This moment is the visual antithesis of the first frame, yet unlike collision editing; we arrived here without any abrupt transitions. Overall, the fluid tracking shots that join the dressing room and the fighting ring precisely oppose the shocking Einsteinian cuts used in the film. This illustrates the two antithetical styles Scorsese used in Raging