New Hollywood Series: Raging Bull

The Maverick at the Movies series on New Hollywood films continues on today's episode with a look at Raging Bull, Martin Scorsese character study of boxer Jake La Motta.

Scorsese was one of the most important filmmakers to emerge from the New Hollywood period (1968 - 1980), starting with Mean Streets and continuing with Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, New York, New York, and Taxi Driver. Raging Bull was released at the very end of the New Hollywood period and was one of Scorsese's greatest artistic achievements of his career and his best film of the period.

Raging Bull very much embodies New Hollywood tendencies:

• The protagonist is a very difficult character.
• The film features a lot of violence in the ring but also on the streets and in the home.
• The film travels into uncomfortable or taboo territory and uproots myth of the 1950s Leave It to Beaver home and puts infidelity and violence there.
• The film deals with subtext that is personal to the director, which in this case includes struggles with masculinity, life in the Bronx, Catholic imagery, and a chaotic home life.

The music of Raging Bull is interesting and is one of the key ways in which the film succeeds both as a personal work in Scorsese filmography and as a piece of cinematic art. On the show I've divided up the music into three categories:

Italian Music
This comes in two forms. First, rather than use a score produced exclusively for the film, Raging Bull features selections by composer Mascagni. This gives the Italian flavor to the environment La Motta lives in and comes from. It is a beautiful but mournful piece of music that comes in contrast to the scenes of brutal violence and underscores the tragedy of La Motta's story. Second, the film also features pieces like "Vivre" by Carlo Buti which also sets the ethnic setting of the story.

Lounge Music
Many scenes in the film take place in bars or clubs and music by Gene Krupa and His Orchestra or Russ Columbo and Nat Shilkret’s Orchestra create atmosphere. This music is often included as source music, which means that it comes from a radio or background performances.

Pop Music
Other source music in the film comes from recognizable music and Hollywood figures like Marilyn Monroe, Ella Fitzgerald, and Tony Bennett, among others. This music places the film in a particular space and time. There are few visual cues in the film that tell us when the film takes place, but music selections by these figures places the audience in the decade.