Scorsese uses a zoom lens and a dolly shot from Jake's point of view to manipulate the length of the ring and to create the impression that Robinson is much larger than he actually he is. This is used to great effect in Jake's final fight with Sugar Ray Robinson. Indeed, by composing on these visual planes in a closed frame, Scorsese conveys Jake's inner feelings of isolation.Īnother way viewers get in Jake's mind is through point of view shots. According to Giannetti, objects filmed in the foreground comment on the figure in some way (67).

Moreover, Scorsese conspicuously places the augmented ropes in the foreground while placing Jake near the rear of the ring. Shooting with this type of lens makes the ring appear massive. Scorsese distorts space in the very first scene of the film by using a wide-angle lens to film Jake shadow boxing in the ring. In the text, Understanding Movies, Giannetti classifies formalists as filmmakers who often distort time and space while placing emphasis on the symbolic characteristics of objects (2-4). Scorsese's account of Jake LaMotta's career is highly stylized, and at times, extravagant. This is not to say that the film is of the realist tradition, however. Moreover, the black and white photography creates a newsreel, documentary feel to the film, which is particularly apt considering that the film focuses on the career of a boxer from the nineteen-forties.

This greatly helps establish the dark and gritty atmosphere the film wishes to convey. Although it was filmed in the late nineteen-seventies, Raging Bull is shot almost entirely in black and white. One of the first things a viewer notices while watching this film is its ostensibly anachronistic cinematography.

Through cinematic devices such as cinematography, slow-motion, symbolism, dolly shots, wide-angles, zooms, and proxemic patterns, Martin Scorsese masterfully tells the tale of a man haunted by insecurity, inadequacy, and self-doubt. This film proves to be so exemplary, in fact, that it is continuously voted as the best film of the nineteen-eighties by critics and film students alike. 'All I know is this: once I was blind and now I can see.' This concluding quote used in Raging Bull can be applied in a much lighter sense to summarize how one can attain a greater understanding of cinematic technique by merely observing this monumental film.

Raging bull in color