The Making of Raging Bull

by Mike Evans

Based on the autobiography of boxer Jake La Motta, Raging Bull has been hailed as director Martin Scorsese's masterwork by many critics. Looking at the film both in the context of American cinema in the late seventies and early eighties, and its place in Scorsese's work before and since, The Making Of Raging Bull is a unique analysis of a classic. Exploring the actual shooting and editing of the gritty black-and-white film, the book also looks at past screen treatments of a subject which is violent by its very nature, and the effect the role had on the lead star Robert de Nero's subsequent career.

Genres: Nonfiction, Film

214 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part 3 of the Film Frontiers series (I read the first, about “Scarface”, a few years ago), this ostensibly looks at the making of “Raging Bull” (1980) but crams in so much else that it falls well short of being in any way definitive. While barely quoting his sources (you have to look at one of the many appendices), Evans looks at DeNiro and Scorsese (biographies, essentially), other Hollywood boxing films and Jake La Motta’s story, before moving into the making off where we get casting (6 pages) and the production (26 pages). A drawn-out synopsis gets 40 pages (!) before we read about the criticial reaction, how it affected the actors careers and then a chunk about what Scorsese did next. If I’d wanted that, I’d have read a biography of Scorsese - or, indeed, DeNiro - so this really doesn’t do what it says it will. A wasted opportunity.

[Jeff Miller · Rating 2 out of 5]

A quick read for a 200 page book…because, well…there’s not that much here to be honest…

The margins are pretty generous and the numerous appendices are not really needed…this could easily be reset into a BFI classic 100 page book…apart from the fact that it’s not good enough for that series. The book is called ‘The Making of Raging Bull’ but in reality there’s probably less than a quarter of the book devoted to ‘the making of’ and even then, I knew much of what was presented, with just a few insights I had not come across before (specifically about the sound and editing – worth the read for those alone).

Ultimately there’s just too much padding here for me to properly recommend it; Raging Bull is one of the greatest movies ever made – I will argue the case with anyone – but there must be better books than this one…