My Favorite Scene: Raging Bull

The most important line in Raging Bull occurs roughly 11 minutes into the film, and is spoken by a character who is never seen. Moments after Jake La Motta beats the living hell out of his first on screen opponent by hitting him with a couple dozen consecutive left hooks, we cut to Jake getting ready to eat a meal prepared by his wife.

The wife over cooks his steak, Jake flips out, and a screaming match ensues. Now pay attention. Once the argument is over and Jake’s wife has locked herself in the bedroom, Jake’s neighbor begins yelling from the street (or maybe another apartment) telling Jake to keep it down. They bicker back and forth and then the neighbor says it. He calls Jake an animal.

Now, that scene takes place in 1941, flash forward to 1957 when Jake, now bloated, fat, disgusting and utterly worthless, is being thrown into a prison cell in Florida for letting underage girls into his night club. Two giant guards (who were real police officers) forcibly throw Jake into a dark, concrete, solitary confinement cell. Jake, panting from the scuffle with the guards, yells at the officers through the cell door before sitting down and trying to catch his breath. He paces back and forth, looks to his left, walks toward the cell wall, puts his hands up on the wall, and then it happens.

As the camera slowly moves in, Jake begins to beat his head against the wall – once, twice, 10 times. He takes a step back and starts throwing punches, everytime a fist connects with concrete, he screams out the word “Why” through tears. He hits the wall again and again and again with steady rhythm, before completely losing it. He throws his jabs faster and faster, pounds his head harder and harder – nothing but the noise of skin against concrete and the animalistic roars of our raging bull.

After what feels like an eternity, he sits down on the cell bench and begins wailing in pain. Now, look at what is going on here. In a sheer moment of iconic genius, director Martin Scorsese lights Robert De Niro in pitch black. We cannot see the actor at all, just a slight slab of light to his right shines into the cell. In his pain, Jake begins repeating the most devastating line of the film: “They called me an animal, I’m not an animal. I’m not an animal.” It has been 16 goddamn years since his neighbor called him an animal, but it is something that obviously continues to haunt him. Sure, his boxing name is that of a beast, and he’s undoubtedly been called worse in the time we’ve known him, but as an audience, we have not heard Jake specifically be referred to as an “animal” since that early scene.

And, to me, everything you need to know about Raging Bull, about its pain and beauty and brilliance, is on full display in this brief scene in the cell. From an acting standpoint, De Niro, bathed in darkness, delivers what I consider to be the single greatest acting scene in movie history. Period. Raging Bull isn’t really a movie about a boxer, but rather, a flawless portrayal of addiction. That is, the addiction of rage. Jake La Motta was a man who always had an opponent. Whether it was his competitors inside the ring, his wife inside their home, or his brother at the kitchen table, Jake always had someone to fight. And it isn’t until this scene in the cell that there is no one else to beat on but himself, so beat he does.

Technically, the scene is masterful for many reasons. There is the aforementioned cinematography (infinite props to director of photography Michael Chapman), the simplistic editing, and, of course, the precise direction.

In his director’s commentary for the film, Scorsese says that the scene is a perfect example of when you do not say “action” or “cut.” You don’t used sticks to help synch sound, you don’t have people running around barking orders, you sit back, shut the hell up, and let the actor do what he has to do.

(Side note: in La Motta’s commentary on the DVD, he says that not only did this event actually happen, but at that time in his life, slamming his head against the wall was a pleasurable as having an orgasm. Whoa.)

In short, this scene works on a number of levels, but I haven’t even touched on, perhaps, the most important one of all.

Emotionally, this scene is one of the most effective three minutes of consecutive film ever shot. I was 11 the first time I saw Raging Bull (that may seem young, but believe me, by age 11 I knew more about movies than most of my parents’ friends), and when this scene came on, I was so profoundly disturbed that I couldn’t find the words to speak. I don’t remember if tears swelled in my eyes back then, but I can tell you that they sure as shit do now. We’re watching a man at his absolute worst. A man incapable of any real sense of human connection, unless it is rooted in pain.

Yesterday, I said that Raging Bull will be remembered as long as people are remembering films. This scene is one of the many reasons why.

Previous installments of My Favorite Scene include:
Babel
Brokeback Mountain
Crash
Fargo
The Godfather
The Godfather Part II
GoodFellas
He Got Game
House of Games
Leaving Las Vegas
Philadelphia
Platoon
Redbelt
The Rules of Attraction
Se7en
Sleepers

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