2. Background Raging Bull was a 1980 film directed by Martin Scorsese that won 2 oscars (right) about an emotionally and physically destructive boxer Jake La Motta who’s violence and temper aggravate situations to his benefit, and then come back to react later in his life. The movie is responsible for upholding a serious truth value to Jake’s actual life, as the movie was based on the autobiography, Raging Bull: My story. The movie displays success, in the form of entitlement and recognition for being the best, as well as the way he obtained it. As he begins the roots of his career, Jake La Motta finds his only help managing his career in his brother, Joey La Motta (Joe Pesci), as they fight for a way to obtain entitlement without the help of other people. *Mafia management of WBA (world boxing association) was about money, not the best contenders fighting in the ring. ESSENTIALLY: Mafia manager= better chances for recognized fights(title fights)
3. The Thesis Martin Scorsese depicts that the success (entitlement) of boxer Jake La Motta is derived from masculinity, in the form of controlling and manipulating situations, definitively: 1: Jake La Motta’s manipulations with relationships of mob members. 2: Jake La Motta’s abusive and controlling relationships with his family 3: Jake La Motta’s inability to control his physical characteristics.
4. How his control develops PHYSICALLY: Jake is unable to control certain characteristics of his success. Physicality is important to his success because it defines which weight class he fights in, which in turn describes the weight of champion he will be contending. There are multiple champions in boxing and La Motta was forced into staying in the middle-weight and light-heavyweight divisions his entire life; therefore, unable to accomplish what he had dreamed of from the start, heavyweight champion of the world. Evidence: Jake La Motta speaks in one of the opening scenes, “My hands, they’re too small”, “No matter what I’ll never be able to fight Joe Lewis (heavy-weight champion at the time of dialogue).
5. Relationship with Mafia RELATIONSHIP: He maintains himself with his brother as manager, everything goes well until the opportunity for a title shot doesn’t show up. Eventually the mafia ran out of fighters willing to fight Jake La Motta, and the mob tried real hard to negotiate a deal with Jake to help them help eachother. This was done in the form of throwing a fight, which Jake was to do. By containing and then releasing the control over his actions in the ring, he also released some of his success. Evidence: Jake La Motta released his control of management by throwing the fight, but also gained what he wanted in return (title fight) almost entirely MANAGING HIMSELF. Where’s the loss?: It turns out that the fight was so obviously fake that Jake La Motta broke down into tears after the fight (Raging Bull movie) and crowds uproared with hatred for the boxer. This loss of recognition and respect for La Motta’s decisions downsized the quality of success gained through winning the title. This is evident in the famous monologue of raging bull where it seems like he is talking about this situation of his life. A video presents this monologue on how his success was tainted through the loss of this control on the following slide.
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7. Controlling his family situations Success in controlling his surroundings in terms of his relationship with his wife and brother allows Jake to gain confidence in his ability to manipulate people and situations to his desirable outcome. This leads to success for him personally, which allows him to be more focused on his main goal. He doesn’t trust his brother when he says he didn’t have sex with Vicki, and shows control by trying to beat his wife and brother until he feels satisfied and settled. Jake tries to keep Vicki from seeing other people, and is jealous when he see’s her with other people.
