So it was a very difficult task to choose one film to talk about for my presentation and just as difficult to choose just a single clip from that film. Honourable mentions go to 2001, A Clockwork Orange, The Graduate and Annie Hall, each of which I strongly considered but ultimately all lost out to the stunning Raging Bull.

Raging Bull for me is the pinnacle of cinema as an artform. It hasn’t dated a day since it’s release and still remains one of the most well made films I have ever had the privilege of watching.

The next challenge was to choose a section of the film to show, that I feel will adequately portray it’s brilliance. There happens to be two scenes in the movie around 2-3 minutes in length that are perfectly suited to such a brief, the first being the magnificent opening credits where Scorsese creates a moment so beautiful and enchanting that you are drawn into the film straight away and ready to go on a journey with complete trust of wherever he will take you.

But the scene I choose was the middle wedding montage, for me one of the greatest moments in cinema.

But first the scene:

The montage takes place over 2 years, 5 fights, 2 weddings, and even introduces a new character.

So why did this scene work for me and how did he do it?

1. Intermission: The montage acts as a sort of intermission in the film, coming just after the first act, after some intense fight scenes, and before LaMotta’s fall from grace, it gives the audience a break from the heavy dialogue and gives them a chance to breath and get ready for the second half of the film.

2. Colour: Deciding to use colour, when the rest of the film is black & white just blew me away on first watch, i was not prepared for it at all. Scorsese used colour for two reasons, firstly to simply make it stand out from the rest of the film, but also to give it some realism because at the time, 8mm home movie cameras were very popular.

3. Juxtaposition: Intercutting between the colour home movies and the black & white fights, is such a wonderfully crafted contrast between the two sides of Jake LaMotta. Going from anger to happiness creates almost a ballad, a strange king of duet between love and violence, two very distinct sides of LaMotta and a major theme in the film.

4. Photography: Scorsese went to great lengths to make the footage a realistic home movie. He used 16mm film to shoot and was unhappy with the initial camera positioning a movement, by himself and his DOP Michael Chapman, and he realised it was because they were to trained in filmmaking, so he gave the camera to some teamsters on the set to give it a real home movie feel. In post-production he also physically scraped the film with a coat hanger to ensure a rough, naturalistic feeling.

5. Music: I don’t have much to say about the music apart from he nailed it. A hauntingly beautiful classical piece from Silvano called Bacarolle, gives the sequence such grace that every time I watch it entrances me from start to finish.

6. Nostalgia: By using all the techniques I have listed, to give a naturalistic home movie feel, Scorsese achieves great emotional depth in the scene through nostalgia. Home movies have such a nostalgic value because they make you yearn for the good times past, they never show the bad times. It comes at a time in the movie where LaMotta has just lost a fight and tension are high in the locker room, then the music slowly fades up and you realise that boxing will come and go, but the people around Jake are whats important, and that is the central theme in the film.