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Raging Bull

By Dray

Scorcese uses the theme jealousy quite heavily in this film. After Jake falls in love with Vickie and eventually get married, he becomes jealous of every man associated with her, even if they appear to have done nothing wrong. Jake’s jealousy ultimately leads to a divorce at the end, breaking his relationship with Vickie. His jealousy is what fuels his hatred, as Roger Ebert puts it, “He is an engine driven by his own rage”[i] . For Jake, he uses the boxing ring to release this rage towards his opponents, which proves he is a violent and powerful person.

Jake La Motta’s jealousy is emphasised by the use of slow-motion. After Jake falls in love with Vickie, a young teenage girl he meets at a public pool, we see numerous slow-motion shots throughout the film to capture what Jake is feeling in his mind.

In one scene we see them go to nightclub called Copacabana, where Vickie is seen socialising with the guys from the mafia. In this scene, Scorcese uses slow motion to show Vickie floating towards these other men. This technique is used to show us Jake’s point of view from his mind, as slow motion fixes the moment in our own minds, as we share Jake’s exaggeration of an innocent event.

Another scene that uses slow motion to emphasise jealousy is at the hotel room. As Jake waits for his next fight, the mafia boss pays him a visit. When the boss is leaving, Vickie kisses the boss goodbye in front of Jake. This is shot in slow motion, as it again exaggerates what Jake is seeing, showing that he is shocked at what Vickie just done, and doesn’t like it.

Camera techniques are also used to show Jake’s jealousy towards a boxing opponent Janiro. At one stage in the movie, his wife describes Janiro as a pretty boy. In the fight scene, Scorcese uses a lot of close up shots of Janiro’s face to show the punches and pain he is going through. Scorcese especially put wet sponges in the actors gloves to emphasise the fluid spilling out from the body from every punch. There is also a slow motion shot when Janiro starts bleeding, as it gives us a better sense of how hard these punches are landing. These camera techniques were used to show how determined Jake was to destroy Janiro’s pretty face, which then again emphasises Jake’s jealousy.

Scorcese’s brilliant slow motion sequences in the film Raging Bull prove to be more than just showing off great camera technique. He uses it to emphasise the jealousy that Jake has towards men, because it is one of the major themes in his movie. Because of Jake’s never-ending jealousy, it leads to his downfall and destruction at the end of the film. He becomes jealous of everybody including his brother, accusing him for sleeping with his wife, even if his brother has been by his side his entire life. As part of the audience, we cannot read what goes on in Jake’s mind, but from the slow motion shots that exaggerate what Jake is seeing, we can tell that he gets jealous easily which is Scorcese’s way to take the film out of objective reality into the subjectivity of La Motta’s mind.