"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. 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. 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.
One of the first things a viewer notices while watching this film is its ostensibly anachronistic cinematography. Although it was filmed in the late nineteen-seventies, Raging Bull is shot almost entirely in black and white. This greatly helps establish the dark and gritty atmosphere the film wishes to convey. 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 is not to say that the film is of the realist tradition, however. Scorsese's account of Jake LaMotta's career is highly stylized, and at times, extravagant.
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 distorts space in the very first scene of the film by using a wide-angle lens to film Jake shadow boxing in the ring. Shooting with this type of lens makes the ring appear massive. Moreover, Scorsese conspicuously places the augmented ropes in the foreground while placing Jake near the rear of the ring. According to Giannetti, objects filmed in the foreground comment on the figure in some way (67). Indeed, by composing on these visual planes in a closed frame, Scorsese conveys Jake's inner feelings of isolation.
Another way viewers get in Jake's mind is through point of view shots. This is used to great effect in Jake's final fight with Sugar Ray Robinson. 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. Viewers therefore see how Robinson appears to Jake-threatening and powerful. In addition, point of view shots are used to express Jake's jealousy. Through the suspicious boxer's eyes, the audience watches other men coquet his wife.
The zoom lens also functions to express Jake's inner feelings in another crucial scene. Early in the film, the boxer expresses to his brother that he can never be the best boxer because of his "little girl's hands." It is here that viewers learn of Jake's insecurity regarding his masculinity. Indeed, his comment can be deemed to be a metaphor for his perception of his genitalia, which is often associated with a man's self-worth. Later in the film, Jake expresses that he must abstain from sex as preparation for his fights. One particular scene shows Jake actually pouring ice water down his boxer shorts to repress his sexual desires. After one of Jake's ensuing fights, Scorsese zooms in on Jake's bruised hand soaking in a bucket of ice water following an upsetting defeat. The zoom lens and the symbolic use of ice water forces viewers to grasp the correlation between Jake's hands and his genitalia. Jake will unrelentingly use his "little girl's hands" to violently compensate for his perceived male inadequacy by displaying sheer brute force while dominating any opponent unfortunate enough to enter into the ring with him
The film also makes great use of slow-motion. According to the text, slow-motion sequences convey a "choreographic gracefulness" (128). Scorsese uses this gracefulness to demonstrate Jake's fixation on Vickie. At the end of the scene in which Jake first notices his future wife, viewers are subjected to a slow-motion shot of Vickie's legs gracefully splashing water in the pool. This cinematic technique coupled with the content of the shot, Vickie's legs, allows one to discern the obsessive nature of Jake's feelings. Slow-motion is also used to portray Jake's distrust for his object of desire. When Vickie greets rival men, the action is slowed down to indicate Jake's attentive, insecure stare. Jake must scrutinize his wife's every move.
The placement of characters within a frame is another significant cinematic consideration (65). It can accentuate a lack of balance and provide insight to a character's conscious and subconscious thoughts (56). This is best exemplified by Jake and Vickie's meeting scene. A chain-link fence separates them, and Vickie appears to be much taller than the middle-weight boxer. This symbolically represents Jake's perception of the blond bombshell as an entity above him-an individual of whom he is not worthy. It is also interesting to note that Vickie is placed on the right side of the frame. In the text, Giannetti states that the right-side of a frame is comprised of an intrinsic heaviness (62). Therefore, Vickie's placement on the right-side of the frame further illustrates her dominance over Jake from the protagonist's point of view.
Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull masterfully incorporates many different cinematic techniques. Some of these devices include slow-motion, symbolism, zooms, wide-angles, dolly shots, and proxemic patterns. It is these techniques that cinematically convey the tragic story of a man haunted by his own inner demons. Indeed, one can acquire a greater understanding of cinematic language by simply analyzing this sensational film.
Cinematic Technique in Raging BullWritten by Anthony J. Pisco
