What filmmaking techniques does Raging Bull use?

CineCode breaks down 5 techniques in Raging Bull (1980): Chiaroscuro Lighting, Physical Transformation as Arc, Shutter Angle Manipulation, Voiceover as Seduction and Subjective Camera.

Who directed Raging Bull?

Martin Scorsese directed Raging Bull, released in 1980. CineCode also covers Mean Streets (1973), Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), Taxi Driver (1976), New York, New York (1977), The King of Comedy (1982), After Hours (1985).

What films are similar to Raging Bull?

Films that share techniques with Raging Bull include Double Indemnity (1944), The Revenant (2015), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), The Godfather (1972).

Drama · Biography · Sport

Raging Bull

Martin Scorsese, 1980

This is the rise and fall of middleweight boxing champion Jake LaMotta. His explosive jealousy and self-destructive rage eat away at every relationship in his life. Martin Scorsese's black-and-white portrait is barely a sports film. It plays as a relentless study of male shame.

3 Cinematography 2 Narrative

At a glance

Raging Bull is a 1980 drama, biography and sport film directed by Martin Scorsese. This breakdown covers 5 techniques (3 cinematography and 2 narrative), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Double Indemnity uses several of the same techniques.

Cinematography

Chiaroscuro Lighting

Lighting a scene with strong contrast between bright light and deep shadow, a style borrowed from old paintings called chiaroscuro. How lit a character is hints at their moral or mental state.

How this film uses it

The boxing ring is lit like a moral arena. Harsh white light falls on the canvas, and there is darkness beyond the ropes. Each fight ends up feeling like a confession more than a sport.

Where to see it

The Robinson bout. LaMotta refuses to go down. He just takes the punishment in a cone of brutal white light.

Narrative

Physical Transformation as Arc

Showing a character's inner change through their body: weight, posture, movement, injury or recovery. The body becomes a visible record of what happened to them and what it cost.

How this film uses it

De Niro gained 60 pounds for the later scenes, so you can read LaMotta's decline in the body itself. The champion's physique gets swallowed by the man's ruin.

Where to see it

The Miami nightclub scenes. A bloated, middle-aged LaMotta performs embarrassing comedy routines.

Cinematography

Shutter Angle Manipulation

Changing the camera's shutter setting to control motion blur. A narrower, faster shutter makes movement look choppy and hyper-real, which suits the chaos of combat.

How this film uses it

Scorsese and cinematographer Michael Chapman change the camera speed within single fights. Slow motion shows the brutality, and overcranked chaos shows the confusion. Each bout feels like a different emotional experience.

Where to see it

The Janiro fight. The punches are filmed at several frame rates within seconds of each other.

Narrative

Voiceover as Seduction

Giving the narrator a voice so intimate, witty and self-aware that you get pulled into their point of view. You find yourself going along with things you would normally reject.

How this film uses it

The film has no running narration. The closest it comes is LaMotta in 1964, rehearsing his nightclub act alone in a dressing room. Framing the story with a washed-up man performing a version of himself invites you to understand, if not sympathize with, a man who destroys everything he loves.

Where to see it

The opening titles. LaMotta shadowboxes alone in slow motion to the Intermezzo, and no voice explains him. The film then cuts to him in 1964, rehearsing his act in front of a mirror.

Cinematography

Subjective Camera

Placing the camera where a character's eyes are, or shooting the scene the way that character experiences it. You see and feel things from inside their head.

How this film uses it

The ring sequences often cut to LaMotta's point of view. Opponents loom large and the crowd warps. You are placed right inside the boxer's tunnel vision.

Where to see it

The Sugar Ray Robinson championship fight. Robinson's face fills the frame, seen through LaMotta's battered eyes.

Questions

Raging Bull: quick answers

What filmmaking techniques does Raging Bull use?: CineCode breaks down 5 techniques in Raging Bull (1980): Chiaroscuro Lighting, Physical Transformation as Arc, Shutter Angle Manipulation, Voiceover as Seduction and Subjective Camera.
Who directed Raging Bull?: Martin Scorsese directed Raging Bull, released in 1980. CineCode also covers Mean Streets (1973), Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), Taxi Driver (1976), New York, New York (1977), The King of Comedy (1982), After Hours (1985).
What films are similar to Raging Bull?: Films that share techniques with Raging Bull include Double Indemnity (1944), The Revenant (2015), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), The Godfather (1972).

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