One ofRobert De Niro’s most beloved films (and the last one he won an Oscar for) isRaging Bull, the 1980 classic directed byMartin Scorsese. It was the duo’s fourth film together and an adaptation of former middleweight boxing champion Jake LaMotta’s 1970 memoir,Raging Bull: My Story.At the time of its release,it was a box office disappointment and received mixed reviews despite eight Oscar nominations, but today it is regarded as a modern classic and one of the best films by everyone involved in its production.
Yet the road to makingRaging Bullwas difficult, and like the boxer Jake LaMotta, it took plenty of hits in development. During the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival (viaSlashFilm), De Niro and Scorsese detailed their difficult time getting the movie made.Here is the story of how it almost didn’t happen,its initial reaction, and how it serves as a reminder that a movie’s story isn’t over after the box office.
Martin Scorsese Didn’t Originally Want to Make Raging Bull
Raging Bull
Directed by Martin Scorsese, Raging Bull is a 1980 sports drama based on the rise and fall of real-life boxer Jake LaMotta as he strives for success while dealing with his inner demons and his violent temper. Robert De Niro stars as the middleweight champion, with Joe Pesci, Cathy Moriarty, and Nicholas Colasanto in supporting roles.
It was Robert De Niro who first wanted to makeRaging Bullafter reading the novel. He first approached his friend,director Martin Scorsese, whom he had worked with onMean Streets,Taxi Driver, andNew York, New York. Yet Scorsese was not interested in directing the movie, which would eventually earn him a Best Director Oscar nomination. As Scorsese told the Tribeca audience:
“I was interested in anything he’d present to me, but…I wasn’t affected by the book at all. Also, nothing against sports, but having had severe asthma and [being] told I couldn’t run, I couldn’t do this, I couldn’t laugh… I was very sheltered and it kept me from any team sports, which is sad in one way, but on the other hand, it made me focus on imagination. I went to a lot of movies.”
Yet Scorsese would change his mind in 1979 after he was hospitalized for a drug-related overdose. De Niro visited his friend in the hospital, and this time, when he pitched the story to him, Scorsese found a connection to the material, as he saw a parallel to LaMotta’s self-destruction mirrored in his own struggles with addiction. “I was lost in a way, so I had to start all over again,” said the filmmaker. De Niro and Scorsese both knew the director could channel his artistic ambition into making this redemptive story that could help Scorsese stay on track.It was also a chance to recover from the box office failure ofNew York, New York. Everything was riding onRaging Bull.
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Martin Scorsese Believed Boxing Was Boring
Scorsese knew he had to ultimately film the boxing matches, and was intimidated by the notion. While Scorsese was already put off by sports, one of the initial reasons he turned it down was he found boxing, in particular, to be a boring sport. In Peter Biskind’s 1998 bookEasy Riders, Raging Bulls, Scorsese once said, “Even as a kid, I always thought that boxing was boring… It was something I couldn’t, wouldn’t grasp.” That didn’t change either after Scorsese agreed to make the movie and did some research by watching a few boxing matches, as he still found them boring.
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However, when he decided to film the project, the hurdle he found he needed to overcome was how to shoot the scenes. Past boxing films, including the recentAcademy Award winnerRocky, had the camera outside the boxing ring, watching the way a spectator does. Scorsese’s big idea was to put the camera in the ring and let the audience feel like they were the boxers.This was an innovative but costly technique that extended the film’s shoot, as the fights were choreographed like dance scenes and were much more technical.
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Trouble Behind the Scenes
OnceRaging Bullwas a go, the script needed to be reworked. Mardik Martin, who previously wroteMean Streets, was hired to pen the script, but De Niro and the studio disliked his draft.Taxi Driverscreenwriter Paul Schraderwas brought in to rewrite the film, which was much more brutal, graphic, and sexual.
While United Artists did like this version much better, in November 1978, chief executives Steven Bach and David Field told Scorsese, De Niro, and producer Irwin Winkler (Academy Award-winning producer ofRocky)that the film’s script could land them an X rating and limit the film’s audience.Scorsese and De Niro would then spend two weeks reworking the script, but their work on the film remains uncredited.
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Raging Bull’s small test screening went very well, with United Artist Andy Albeck calling Scorsese an artist. Despite the praise,United Artists decided not to distribute the film, and no other studios were interested when they attempted to sell the rights. While United Artists did eventually release the film, it was given a limited marketing campaign, which resulted inRaging Bull’s disappointing box office. During the production, Scorsese thoughtRaging Bullmight be his final Hollywood film, so he was very protective over it and ensured that it wasn’t compromised.
Time Heals All Wounds
Raging Bullis considered one of the greatest films of all time, but at the time of its release, critics were less kind. It made money, but wasn’t a big hit by any means. Unfortunately, Scorsese would follow it withThe King of Comedy, a legitimate box office failure (but an excellent film). The director would enter the wilderness of filmmaking, only to return with probably his most underrated movie,After Hours, which reflected the anxious and difficult previous five years of Scorsese’s career.
Roger Ebert, an early fan ofRaging Bull, called it the best film of the 1980s and one of the ten greatest movies of all time. In 1990, just 10 years after its release, it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry and deemed “culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant” by the United States Library of Congress. In 2005, Time listed it as one of the all-time greatest movies.Raging Bullhas been ranked on other ‘greatest films of all time’ lists, such as those by Entertainment Weekly, Variety, and Rolling Stone.
In 2002,Raging Bulltied withThe Bicycle ThievesandVertigoat number six onSight & Sound’s poll of the greatest movies ever, and when the directors' and critics' lists from that year’s Sight & Sound were combined,Raging Bulllanded the most votes of any movie that has been produced since 1975. Despite not being a sports fan, Scorsese’s work onRaging Bullhas made it one of the most influential sports movies ever made and one of, if not the most acclaimed in the genre. AFI voted it the Best Sports Movie of All Time, and its influence can be felt to this day.
