The Buffalo Film Seminars 4/19/2000 Angelika 8 Theater RAGING BULL (1980) Director Martin Scorsese Producers Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler Music Robbie Robertson and Pietro Mascagni Cinematographer Michael Chapman Film Editor Thelma Schoonmaker Sound Best David J. Kimball, Les Lazarowitz, Donald O. Mitchell and Bill Nicholson. Script Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin (the shooting script was by Scorsese and De Niro), loosely based on the book by Jake LaMotta, Joseph Carter& Peter Savage Robert De Niro Jake La Motta Frank Topham Toppy Cathy Moriarty Vickie La Motta Charles Scorsese Charlie - Man with Como Joe Pesci Joey La Motta Don Dunphy Himself/Radio Announcer Frank Vincent Salvy Bill Hanrahan Eddie Eagan Nicholas Colasanto Tommy Como Rita Bennett Emma - Miss 48's Theresa Saldana Lenore Johnny Barnes Sugar Ray Robinson Mario Gallo Mario Louis R aftis Marcel Cerdan Frank Adonis Patsy Johnny Turner Laurent Dauthuille Joseph Bono Guido Martin Scorsese Barbizon Stagehand De Niro and Schoonmaker won Academy Awards for this picture and nominations went to Scorsese, Chapman, Chartoff and Winkler, Pesci, Moriarty, and the four sound editors. The Awards for best director and best picture that year went to Ordinary People directed b y Robert R edford. Raging Bull is on the American Film Institute’s list of 100 Greatest American Films and has frequently been listed as the best film of the 1980s; Ordinary People hasn’t made either list. MARTIN SCORSESE was going to be a priest but beca me a filmmaker instead. He’s a 1 964 gradu ate of the NYU film program . In 1997 he received the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award. Scorsese has directed commercials for his friend Giorgio Armani, Michael Jackson’s “Bad” music video, and has written, produced, acted in, and/or directed some 70 fiction and documentary films, some of which are: Bringing Out the Dead 1999, Casino 1995, The Age of Innocence 1993, Cape Fear 1991, GoodFellas 1990, The Last Temptation of Christ 1988, The Color of Money 1986, The King of Comedy 1983, The Last Waltz 1978, Taxi Driver 1976, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore 1974, Mean Streets 1973 and Boxcar Bertha 1972. His other Academy Award nominations were for The Age of Innocence (screenp lay), GoodFellas (director, screenplay), and Last Temptation of Christ (director). More than anyone else, he has been responsible for the recent movement to preserve important American films. ROBERT DE NIRO (17 August 1943, New York, New York) has acted in seven other Scorsese films Mean Streets 1973, Taxi Driver 1976, New York New York 1977, The King of Comedy 1983, GoodFellas 1990, Cape Fear 1991, and Casino 1995. Some of his other films are: Analyze This 1999, Ronin 1998, Jackie Brown 1997, Wag the Dog 1997, Frankenstein 1994, A Bronx Tale 1993 (w hich he also directed), The Untouchables 1987, The Mission 1986, Brazil 1985, Once Upon a Time in America 1984, True Confessions 1981, The Deer Hunter 1978, 1900 1976, and The Godfather: Part II 1974. He has five films scheduled for release this year. He other Academy Award nominations were for Cape Fear, Awakenings,Raging Bull, The Deer Hunter, Taxi Driver, The Godfather: Part II won, supporting. Hasty Pudding named him Man of the Year in 1979. CATHY MORIARTY (29 November 1960, The Bronx) appeared in 33 films after debuting as Jake’s wife in Raging Bull, most of them easily forgettable. Some of them are: But I'm a Cheerleader 1999, Gloria 1999, Prince of Central Park 1999, P.U.N.K.S. 1998, Cop Land 1997, Women Without Implants 1997, Another Stakeout 1993, The Mambo Kings 1992, Soapdish 1991, and Neighbors 1981. JOE PESCI (9 February 1943, Newark, New Jersey) had only two bit parts before his role as Jake’s long-suffering brother propelled him into the big time. Since then he has appeared in 29 other films, among them Lethal Weapon 4 1998, 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag 1997, Casino 1995, A Bronx Tale 1993, Lethal Weapon 3 1992, My Cousin Vinny 1992, JFK 1991, Home Alone 1990, GoodFellas 1990, Lethal Weapon 2 1989, Once Upon a Time in America 1984, and I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can 1982. MICHAEL CHAPMAN (21 November 1935, New York) was D.P. for Six Days Seven Nights 1998, Space Jam 1996, Primal Fear 1996, The Fugitive 1993, Rising Sun 1993, Doc Hollywood 1991, Ghostbusters II 1989, Scrooged 1988, The Lost Boys 1987, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid 1982, Personal Best 1982, The Wanderers 1979, Fingers 1978, Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1978, Taxi Driver 1976, The Front 1976, The White Dawn 1974, The Last Detail 1973, and several other films. JAKE LA MOTTA was born July 10, 1921. He fought 106 professional bouts. He won 83 (30 by Kos), lost 19, and drew 4. He fought Sugar Ray Robinson six times. The first five were :1942 (Robinson, decision), twice in 1943 (La Motta won the first, Robinson the second, both by decision), and 1945 (Robinson, decision). La Motta became middleweight chamption with a 10th-round TKO over Marcel Cerdan in 1949. He defended his title twice in 1950—first against Tiberio Mitri and then in the famous fight against Laurent Dauthuille in which he was trailing on the scorecards but came back with an astonishing 15th-round knockout. The sixth and last fight with Robinson was in Chicago onFebruary 14, 1951. For opponents and stats for all of LaMotta’s fights visit www2.xtdl.com/~brasslet/LaMotta_Jake_rec.htm. “I was facinated by the self-destructive side of Jake La Motta’s character, his very basic emotions. What could be more basic than making a living by hitting another person on the head until one of you falls or stops? Bob [DeNiro] and I then decided to take Paul Schrader’s script, with Paul’s blessing, to an island–which is hard for me, because as far as I’m concerned theree’s only one island, M anhattan. But Bob got me through it, he’d wake me up in the morning and mae me coffee, and we spent two-and-a-half weeks there rewriting everything. We combined characters and in fact rewrote the entire picture, including the dialogue. When we got back we showed it to Paul, who didn’t care for it all that much but, as he wrote in his telegram to us when we began shooting, ‘Jake did it his way, I did it my way, you do it your w ay.’ “I put everything I knew and felt into that film and I thought it would be the end of my career. It was what I call a kamikaze way of making movies: pour everything in, then forget all about it and go find another way of life.” Martin Scorsese “In RAGING BULL all the fight scenes were done in drawings. It’s very much like staging a dance to music. Instead of a verse with maybe twelve bars of Some of Scorsese’s storyboard drawings for one of the fight scenes music, it’s four bars of punches. Because it’s all choreography.” Martin Scorsese For more on Raging Bull, visit //movies.tierranet.com/ragingbull/index.htm. The best book on Martin Scorsese is Scorsese on Scorsese, ed. David Thompson and Ian Christie, Faber and Faber, 1996. The American Film Institute set up an interesting Scorsese web site when it gave him the 1997 Life Achievement Award: //www.afionline.org/scorsese/. 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