• Mon. Nov 4th, 2024

Movie Curiosities

The online diary of an aspiring movie nerd

Raging Bull

ByCuriosity Inc.

Sep 23, 2009

Throughout the entire movie, there was one question going through my head: “Why isn’t De Niro’s character lying dead on a field in Germany or Japan or something?”

Seriously, this is a character who is so utterly dependent on conflict that he can only end in self-destruction. He so badly needs to fight that when he’s turned the world’s last middleweight boxer into hamburger, he’ll literally make up reasons to fight with anyone in the vicinity, including his loved ones. And when they bail on him, he fights with a prison wall. The downward progression continues until the end, when he’s old, washed-up, completely alone… and boxing against thin air. Even in those few moments where he tries to express love or camaraderie for someone else, he can only do so through physical means (such as his famous “hit me as hard as you can” scene with Joe Pesci).

The movie was superbly acted and extraordinarily directed, though it fell into the common “biopic” trap of dragging out for a little too long. Additional kudos for the sound design, choreography and slo-mo that made the boxing matches painfully immersive.

By Curiosity Inc.

I hold a B.S. in Bioinformatics, the only one from Pacific University's Class of '09. I was the stage-hand-in-chief of my high school drama department and I'm a bass drummer for the Last Regiment of Syncopated Drummers. I dabble in video games and I'm still pretty good at DDR. My primary hobby is going online for upcoming movie news. I am a movie buff, a movie nerd, whatever you want to call it. Comic books are another hobby, but I'm not talking about Superman or Spider-Man or those books that number in the triple-digits. I'm talking about Watchmen, Preacher, Sandman, etc. Self-contained, dramatic, intellectual stories that couldn't be accomplished in any other medium. I'm a proud son of Oregon, born and raised here. I've been just about everywhere in North and Central America and I love it right here.

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