![]() ![]() The crowd at this match knows it too, because even though Jimmy Reeves (Floyd Anderson) is declared the winner, it’s Jake that everyone is cheering for, and it’s Jake that throws his fists up in victory. Jake LaMotta’s first fight in Raging Bull is takes place in Ohio, outside the familiar rings and rules of the New York Boxing Commission, where everyone knows he’s the one to beat. In his desperate attempt to cling to the things he appears to hold dear - his fame, fortune, and family - it all slips through Jake LaMotta’s fingers as the bull rages on, destroying everything in his volatile path until all he can do is punch the air and mutter “I’m the boss.” Jake LaMotta’s loneliness, however, comes as a result of his fall from glory, a man who has everything and ends up with nothing. ![]() This isn’t Scorsese’s first foray into themes of loneliness and isolation, as those who have seen Taxi Driver (1976), also starring Robert De Niro, will know. ![]() These two opening shots establish LaMotta, the subject of this biopic, as a formidable entertainer and yet extremely alone. LaMotta’s poem is a lamentation on his long-past boxing career and his newfound affinity for putting on a one-act variety show. The audience is then shown an older, less physically fit LaMotta in a tuxedo, reciting a poem in his dressing room. Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull (1980) opens with Jake LaMotta (Robert De Niro) at the height of his boxing career - agile, practically unbeatable and alone in the ring. Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull (1980).
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