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Raging Bull (1980)
Directed by Martin Scorsese.
Directed by Martin Scorsese · Cut by Thelma Schoonmaker · Music by Pietro Mascagni · Ratio 1.85:1 · 129 min
How it was made
- Scorsese chose to shoot in black and white partly because director Michael Powell pointed out that period boxing gloves would only ever have been maroon, oxblood or black, and partly to sidestep the fading of contemporary colour film stock.
- Cinematographer Michael Chapman operated a camera inside the ring during fight scenes, moving like an opponent dodging the fighters so the lens could capture their expressions directly.
- Production shut down for nearly four months, with the full crew kept on payroll, while Robert De Niro gained around 70 pounds on an eating tour of Italy and France to play the older Jake LaMotta.
- Grips hung black duvetyne curtains around all four sides of the ring at the Los Angeles Olympic Auditorium to contain the artificial smoke used for the fight scenes.
- Screenwriter Paul Schrader added the undercooked-steak scene and LaMotta's jail-cell scene to the script; Scorsese and De Niro then spent two and a half weeks on the island of Saint Martin rebuilding much of the remaining material themselves.
Behind the scenes
Elsewhere
More by Martin Scorsese
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