What's with this kissin' on the mouth I just said hello can't I kiss my sister-in-law?
Ain't the cheek good enough for you? I don't even kiss mom on the mouth
the way you kiss her. All a sudden you're like a romeo. So you're not
supposed to kiss your mother on the mouth. That's what I'm talking about!
i want you to hit me as hard as you can how's that that looks like something There are many
ways to describe Jake La Motta in the film Raging Bull. He's a complicated man who doesn't
seem all that complicated, he's a bully who's incredibly vulnerable, he's capable of enduring
intense physical pain and yet dramatically sensitive to the most minor verbal slight. An
athlete who yearned for his sport's highest honor and when he achieved it he went about dismantling
his legacy and closest relationships almost beyond repair. You don't have to like Jake La Motta,
you don't have to sympathize with him, but it's hard to deny he's a compelling figure.
Many people know his name but it's not necessarily because of his boxing career. There have been
a lot of great boxers over time and while the Bronx Bull was one of the best of his generation,
it's not really his record in the ring that people think of when they hear his name. Jake La Motta is
well known because key moments of his tumultuous life were dramatized on the screen by filmmaker
Martin Scorsese who unflinchingly turned that violent some might say tragic existence into one
of the most critically applauded American movies of all time. But how close did Scorsese get to
reality? Lace up the gloves as we take a look at what the [ __ ] really happened to this movie!
Martin Scorsese was not actually the originator of the film project. While in Italy shooting The
Godfather part 2, Robert De Niro read Jake La Motta's candid autobiography Raging Bull and
found it to be a fascinating story, one ripe for big screen treatment. De Niro gave the
book to Scorsese while the director was shooting Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. Scorsese wasn't
originally interested because he's not much of a sports fan and he didn't want to do a conventional
sports movie, but he has always been interested in the human condition and he ultimately couldn't
resist the story of a self-destructive brute who constantly punishes himself and those around him.
At that time Scorsese was battling his own demons hopelessly addicted to drugs and self-destructing
in his own right. After he agreed to make the film his friend and Mean Streets co-writer Mardik
Martin took a swing at the screenplay, although it was eventually rewritten by Taxi Driver scribe
Paul Schrader. Scorsese and De Niro did a final pass on the screenplay themselves and in 1979 they
were ready to get in the ring with Jake La Motta's story. Most of Raging Bull takes place in the
1940s when the real Jake was an up-and-comer known for his brutal bouts and the punishment he was
able to withstand, but it went deeper than just his incredible physical ability to absorb those
punches. La Motta would welcome getting beaten. His subconscious told him that he deserved the
hits he was receiving. I done lot of bad things Joey, maybe it's coming back to me and he barely
felt the pain that was being inflicted. In fact when La Motta helped train Robert De Niro before
production began he would encourage the actor to really hit him. The two sparred hundreds of
times according to La Motta, who has said i guess god gifted me with a hard head. Part of the real
Jake's training involved sparring with his brother Joey. Jake would goad Joey into punching him in
the face and provoke his brother by smacking him around, which is depicted in the film. We see
Joey wear a padded contraption that Jake actually invented to soften the blows to Joey's midsection.
As the real Jake later revealed he couldn't get anyone else to spar with him because of his
imposing brutality. In the film we see De Niro and Pesci reenacting these moments and obviously De
Niro learned about punishing punches from La Motta as he broke one of Pesci's ribs during the scene
in the boxing ring. When Pesci grimaces in pain that's very much for real. Raging Bull is famous
for its intense bloody fight scenes. Scorsese took about 10 weeks to shoot these scenes using
a single camera instead of multiple setups, giving the sequences a harrowing sense. All the outcomes
of the fights in the movie are accurate and many of the big moments were taken from real life.
This is best exemplified in the fights between La Motta and his ultimate rival Sugar Ray Robinson.
They fought six times with Robinson winning five of them, some of those being controversial
decisions by the judges. One that La Motta really felt he deserved himself was their third bout. He
and his brother thought Robinson only got the win because he was enlisting in the army soon after.
As the film depicts, in one of the fights Sugar Ray is knocked outside the ropes, which was taken
from a picture Scorsese found of the real fight. During their final clash Sugar Ray unleashed a
torrent of punches at La Motta in the 13th round of a bloodbath dubbed the Saint Valentine's Day
Massacre and yet La Motta never did hit the mat. Even though he lost the fight one of the
film's many quotable lines comes when Jake after taking that pure beating from Sugar Ray boasts
but in the film's DVD commentary La Motta claims that was a bit of fiction just for the film,
stating i never said it that is probably what i would have said if i did say something but i
never did, i had too much respect for Ray. So much respect that after their fighting days were over
the two became friends with Robinson serving as La Motta's best man, appropriately for his sixth time
at the altar. In the movie one memorable fight in Cleveland ends with a riot in the stadium
with chairs being thrown into the ring and fights breaking out all over the place.
This all actually happened, La Motta even attested that they abruptly started playing
the national anthem in a futile attempt to calm everyone down. One interesting way La Motta got
ready for a fight is shown in another memorable scene where his young girlfriend Vikki gets Jake
so aroused that he stops her from continuing and dumps a pitcher of cold water down his shorts.
It is true that Jake avoided sex when training for a fight because he said it made his legs
weak. He was also known to pour ice water down his boxers to cool off, it was a ritual that he
thought helped him in the ring. One of the darkest moments of Jake's life in the boxing ring at least
came right before he was given a shot of the title bout which would have fulfilled
his lifelong dream of being the champ. Back then boxing was controlled by the mafia,
they called the shots in terms of who fought and competed for the title. However Jake had
no love for the local mob guys and he didn't want their help to get a shot at the title,
he wanted to do it on his own. But that was not meant to be so Jake had to take a dive
to a quote-unquote bum named Billy Fox. As seen in the film Jake was clearly the better fighter
almost knocking out fox immediately even having to hold up his opponent so he wouldn't go down,
he had to encourage Fox to beat him and the charade was pretty clear for all to see.
La Motta lost the fight placating the mob but the damage done by losing on purpose was severe
both to his reputation and his pride. Scorsese's depiction of the fight and its aftermath appear to
be fairly accurate, a heartbroken Jake cries as his brother and trainers consoled him.
According to Scorsese he had read an account of the incident from a reporter who came into the
locker room right after the fight. He saw Jake crying while one of the trainers who in reality
was Jake's father pushed the other reporters out of the room in disgust. The real La Motta also
remembered crying afterwards, ashamed for selling out to a lousy boxer. The consequences
were greater than just embarrassment, the boxing commission suspended Jake for taking the dive. But
La Motta did get a chance at the title fighting Marcel Cerdan and beating him to become the champ.
La Motta remembers crying after that, tears of joy this time, so proud he was of the legitimate
accomplishment. Not mentioned in the movie is the fact that Cerdan evidently had a tear in his right
shoulder during the fight which you could assume had a major effect on the end result. There was
supposed to be a rematch but tragically Cerdan died in a plane crash before that could happen.
Joey La Motta was the intermediary between Jake and the mob and served as his de facto manager.
According to La Motta himself Pesci's portrayal of Joey was very accurate. That said, in reality
Joey was still a teenager in the early 1940s while Pesci was 36 when he shot the film, the same age
as De Niro, while three years separated the real brothers. And while the relationship between Jake
and Joey is the heart of the movie, one of the biggest ways in which the movie differs from
the true story is embodied by the character of Joey La Motta. The Raging Bull memoir
written by Jake and his childhood friend Peter Savage did not feature Joey that much with Savage
being a more prominent figure in Jake's life. Some of the things attributed to Joey in the film were
actually perpetrated by savage in reality but when screenwriter Paul Schrader was brought in to work
on the script he felt adding Joey instead would bring a more compelling and personal arc to the
overall story. The real Joey La Motta eventually sued the film's producers for what he felt was
an unflattering depiction of him in the film. The other main person in Jake's life is Vikki,
a Bronx-born model played by Cathy Moriarty, who was 17 at the time, while the actual Vikki was
a mere 15 when she met the 23 year old Jake. The film depicts Jake seeing Vikki for the first time
at a community pool but in reality he first met her at a gym. They married a year later and the
overwhelming jealousy Jake felt whenever anyone looked at her began to overshadow everything else
in his life. Still there were good memories to be made there and the home movies of Jake and Vikki
in happier times are the only sections of the film in color. This is surprisingly accurate,
Jake really did have a 16 millimeter camera that shot color film. After Jake became the champ
everything went downhill as always the boxer's subconscious told him that he didn't deserve
happiness, didn't even deserve to live, and his all-consuming anger coupled with a decline in his
physique meant a downfall was inevitable you know you should do try a little more f**kin a little
less eatin' you won't have troubles upstairs in your bedroom and you won't take it out on me and
everybody else you understand ya wacko you're cracking up The real Jake was indeed abusive to
Vikky but the two remained married for 11 years eventually moving to Florida after Jake retired.
Vikki ultimately left Jake unable to live with his instability, taking their three children with her.
Those later Florida years showing an overweight and down on his luck Jake are depicted fairly
accurately in the film, he did own a nightclub where he performed really terrible comedy
just want to see what the what my microphone on a sexy girl sounds like you know what it means
to come home to a beautiful lovely gorgeous lady who gives you a lot of love affection tenderness
it means you're in the wrong goddamn apartment In order to transform from 160 pounds to a stout 215
De Niro spent four months eating his way through pretty much everything ultimately experiencing
some of the more disagreeable side effects that come with being overweight. Scorsese was
legitimately concerned about De Niro's health even going so far as to cut down the shooting
schedule so he could get De Niro finished sooner to start getting him healthy again. La Motta hit
rock bottom when he was arrested for pimping out a 14 year old girl to someone at his club. The film
shows Jake crudely kissing the girl and her friend but doesn't portray the alleged crime. The real
La Motta maintained to his dying day that he was innocent of the allegation but was thrown in jail
for it regardless. And yes he really did smash his hands against the jail cell wall. La Motta later
recalled that the wall suddenly represented every bad thing that ever happened to him in
addition to his own self-loathing so he punched it until his hands literally couldn't take anymore.
As Raging Bull shows, in order to pay for his bail Jake dismantled his championship belt to sell some
of the jewels. In a bitterly ironic twist it turned out the jeweler would have preferred to
have the belt intact as it held more value. That really happened as Jake begrudgingly admitted on
the DVD audio commentary: i was so stupid that i should have kept the belt the way it was it
was worth more today than was worth then The last thing we hear Jake say in the film after
he finishes his rendition of the i could have been a contender monologue is I'm the boss I'm the boss
I'm the boss According to La Motta he would always repeat this phrase to pump himself up
before a fight. Shockingly the first time the real Jake La Motta saw Scorsese's movie was with Vikki
who he remained friends with even after all those years of marital strife. When the film
was over La Motta turned to Vikki and asked was i really like that? You know she said to me,
you were worse. Despite all the beatings he took Jake La Mottalived to be 95 years old before
passing in 2017. Even in his later years he was always ready and willing to talk about his life
the bad times that's entertainment and the good that's entertainment
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