Watching a bad person fall, should feel satisfying. Someone who at one point, commanded an audience, reduced to mediocrity. Someone who made their way hurting everyone in their path.
But when Jake LaMotta, the insecure, abusive, self-destructive, egomaniac crumbled into a hack, desperate for recognition, it left me hollow.
No scene better encapsulates that isolated feeling than when Jake, now overweight, slow, almost unrecognizable, takes his stab into stand-up comedy.
Scorsese positions us way in the back of the room, then in his face, and finally from his perspective.
He rotates between them, as Jake goes on with his bit.
Half the room is paying attention.
Barely a quarter laughing.
A man heckles him for his trite humor.
Jake’s response: “Pal, you’re gonna force me to make a comeback.”
The man, a former titan of the boxing world, was intimidated by a stranger.
Fear was Jake’s biggest advantage. Whether it be his opponents, his wives, or his brother, he operated on it. When he had you cornered you could see it in his eyes.
Now in a position to defend himself, he awkwardly searches for a come-back.
His menace is gone.
His recognition is gone.
Jake is doomed to milk his past, when he believes he was somebody.
He knows that version of himself is gone.
He knows he deserves it.
He knows he did it to himself.
That awareness is why Raging Bull leaves me feeling empty. An evil that understands itself is different from an ignorant force.
Jake believes in his doom, understands why he is there, yet still holds onto himself.
I’ve never wanted him to succeed, however, I didn’t realize how barren it would feel to watch him fail.