‘Raging Bull’ returns
NEW YORK – Jake LaMotta’s hand shakes ever so slightly as he raises the cup of coffee to his lips.
He is dressed all in black, with a cowboy hat to match. He is hard of hearing, has the cough of a longtime cigar smoker and looks every one of his 83 years.
Then, suddenly, his eyes grow wide with surprise and delight.
“Twenty-five years,” he says. “Can you believe it? Twenty-five years.”
It has indeed been a quarter of a century since LaMotta passed from boxing lore into the greater public consciousness, thanks to Robert De Niro’s searing portrayal of him in Martin Scorsese’s classic film “Raging Bull.”
With the release of the two-disc DVD version of the movie on Feb. 8, LaMotta is sure to have another round in the spotlight.
Last week, LaMotta was preparing to attend a “premiere” party for the movie, which was to have a special one-week run in a Midtown theater, and the ever-proud “Bronx Bull” has just one question:
“I want to see who’s going to get a bigger hand, me or De Niro.”
It’s a curious position for the former middleweight champion to find himself in.
The movie is an unflinching look at LaMotta’s life. It follows him through two marriages, his fight career, a falling out with his brother and his physical decline – De Niro famously gained upward of 50 pounds for scenes as the out-of-shape fighter – after retiring from the ring, when he became a club owner and cabaret act.
As played by De Niro, who won an Academy Award for the performance, LaMotta can be charismatic, loyal, boorish, arrogant, stubborn and abusive. But he is also undeniably human.
“It’s really about, I guess, that part of a human being that can be your own worst enemy,” Scorsese says. “The ring itself is, in a sense, life. You don’t have to be a boxer to be Jake LaMotta in this movie, you know, and I think that that’s important to know that.”
But you do have to be Jake LaMotta to capitalize on the fame that resulted from the movie.
LaMotta doesn’t shy away from the dark side of his personality, and he knows the film doesn’t always present him in the best light. But it also made him well-known to another generation, people who had never seen him box in the smoke-filled air of Madison Square Garden.
“I had a pretty good reputation as a fighter, and it started to go down,” LaMotta says. “(I was) not as popular as the years went by, and the movie came by and it made me champ all over again.”
The fame has stuck since the movie came out in 1980, enabling LaMotta to still earn a living through autograph signings and personal appearances. The veteran of six marriages now lives in Manhattan with his fiancée, Denise Baker, who is several decades younger, and he is fiercely proud of the film’s legacy.
He contributed commentary to the special-edition DVD, and is quick to recount sparring over 1,000 rounds with De Niro in the year before filming.
“I swear, without exaggeration, when I got done with him he, could have fought professionally,” LaMotta says. “That’s how dedicated he was.”
He mentions several articles he’s read that list “Raging Bull” among the top 100 films of all time, many of them placing it in the top 5. Citing classics such as “The Godfather” and “Casablanca,” he believes his movie will stand the test of time, too.
Others, such as boxing historian Bert Sugar, agree.
Sugar, who is editing a book about fight films, ranks “Raging Bull” as one of the top four boxing films ever made – along with “Body and Soul,” “The Great White Hope,” and the recently released “Million Dollar Baby.”
“It’s about a person who is very insecure and the only way he knows how to get by is with his fists – in the ring, with his brother, with his wife,” Sugar says, adding with a laugh that the movie “at times made LaMotta look nice.”
Not always.
LaMotta throws a fight in the film. He is shown hitting his wife, Vikki, and his jealousy and lack of trust for her caused the marriage to break up. He also accuses his brother of having an affair with her. The mother of three of his children, the real-life Vikki died Jan. 25.
Still, LaMotta’s main complaint with the movie is the language.
“They were doing the movie and I said to them, ‘I don’t use profanity,’ ” he says. “My brother used profanity and all his friends used it. My kids never grew up knowing profanity. But I had to go along with the movie and that’s the one thing where they disappointed me, they used profanity a lot.”
Still quick with a one-liner – “I fought Sugar Ray (Robinson) so many times, it’s a wonder I don’t have diabetes,” – LaMotta no longer watches much boxing. He believes the best fighters came from his era, when there was less time between bouts.
He is now content to sign his name for money, basking in the glow, harsh as it is, of being the “Raging Bull.”