The contrast between the mundane environments of La Motta’s life and the visceral, kinetic stage of the ring gives Raging Bull a distinctive quality, and Chapman’s intricate work brought him his first Academy Award nomination, as well as awards from BAFTA, the National Society of Film Critics and the Boston Society of Film Critics. He and Scorsese agreed that the camerawork in the ring would be frenetic and diverse through careful choreography, and that much of the rest of the picture would be standard setups with a more realistic style. Chapman had never shot a black-and-white feature and prepared for the job with much research. One of Scorsese’s key collaborators on Raging Bull was cinematographer Michael Chapman, ASC ( Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Fugitive), who had previously worked with the director on Taxi Driver, American Boy and The Last Waltz. The picture recounts La Motta’s climb to fame as “the Bronx Bull,” and as his star rises, the self-loathing bully obsessively punishes himself and those around him, including his devoted brother, Joey (Joe Pesci), and his wives, particularly young Vickie (Cathy Moriarty) he eventually destroys the relationships that are most crucial to him and winds up a lonely, tragic shadow of his famous self. When American Film magazine asked 54 film critics to name the most important American film of the 1980s, a majority of them chose Raging Bull, Martin Scorsese’s lyrical, complex film about middleweight boxing champion Jake La Motta (Robert De Niro).
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