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'Raging Bull'

Video Editing Analysis

By Mitch DavisPublished 6 years ago 5 min read
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In 2012, the Motion Picture Editors Guild celebrated their 75th anniversary, and in honor of the event, released the Motion Picture Editors Guild’s list of 75 best-edited films of all time. At the very top of the list came Raging Bull, edited by Thelma Schoonmaker and directed by Martin Scorsese. What is it that makes the editing so impactful? To get down to the heart of it, we’ll take a detailed look into one of the scenes.

The scene is Jake La Motta’s final fight against Sugar Ray Robinson. He’s defending his middleweight championship, but it doesn’t go well. It’s the beginning of La Motta’s plummet and ends his career as a boxer. The scene begins with a slowed down collage of La Motta getting cleaned up in between rounds. There’s lots of noise and commotion, but it’s drowned out, putting us in the moment with La Motta rather than with the noise of the crowd. Already we’re connecting with the main character and being forced into his perspective.

The next, shot goes the complete opposite direction and shows what one would be seeing of the fight on TV, even including a promotional piece for an advertisement. It’s an interesting choice to take the audience from being so close to La Motta to jumping not only outside of the ring, but also outside of the whole building and into a small TV before heading back into the ring for the fight. It reminds the audience that they aren’t apart of what’s happening and alienates them. It’s typical to connect with the main character, after all they’re who you want to root for and who is supposed to be the hero, but moving to the outside world disconnects the audience. This creates a desire to want to connect and like the main character, but just not being able to really do can make the audience feel empty.

During all of this commentary is playing over the scene. The general purpose of the commentary is to connect the shots as they move in and out of the ring from person to person. The commentary also connects to the actual story, as it’s the actual TV broadcast from when Jake La Motta lost his title to Sugar Ray Robinson.

After a little back and forth in the ring between the competitors, we’re taken back outside the arena once again, this time we’re shown Jake’s brother Joey, giving us some context of where we are when shown another TV clip. The TV is also helpful to restate where we are in the battle, as the commentary states we’re moving on to round 13 the words appear on screen as well, drilling in that round 13 is an important moment.

The sounds cuts down, Jake La Motta is sitting in his corner. He’s picked up and pushed back into the match. The sounds rise as they begin, the crowd, the commentary and the punches all raise in volume together, raising anxiety along with it. We’re put into a pressure state, there’s a lot riding on this fight and the audience is meant to really feel it in this moment, in the round where he loses it all. It comes down to the final sequence, the volume dies down again (except for La Motta yelling at Robinson to “Come on” and keep going at him), and cuts are further apart.

It’s the beating of anticipating hearts; it’s the moment right before the answer to a major question. Schoonmaker is recreating that pounding feeling we get as nerves take over and the whole world seems to erase except that moment, and that answer. The competitors stare each other down, it may seem long, but the pressure keeps us on edge, that nagging question of who will win keeps our hearts pounding.

And punch! Robinson goes for the blow. Thirty-six shots of punching, flashing lights, blood, and helpless reactions throw us in a whirlpool of confusion. We’re set in the same mind as La Motta, everything is happening too fast. It’s impossible to keep track of, there’s lights and blood and noise. It’s all too much. There’s a brief pause as Robinson lifts his glove to take one final hit. There’s no time to take in what just happened, because we’re too busy thinking about what’s about to happen. It’s like being in a storm in the middle of an ocean, dealing with all the waves and movement right before a pause leading up to the biggest wave. There’s no time to take in the storm yet, but just panic about the oncoming wave. There’s nothing more to be done, but it’s coming and the extra time only makes the anxiety worse.

There’s despair and disappointment all around. We catch glimpses of La Motta’s wife and brother; it’s evident by their faces that this wasn’t the outcome they hoped for. La Motta approaches Robinson, “You never got me down,” he states. At first it seems like a way to look on the bright side, but the repetition of the phrase makes him appear cocky rather than optimistic. Once again allowing us to relate to him and then pull back. It’s a consist game of connection and disconnection.

The final shot is twenty-two seconds long. As far as cuts go, that’s a long time to keep continuous, but it never feels long. It’s a long pan starting from an empty corner in the ring, going down to the announcer, the winner and finally the blood on the rope. In truth, the droplet of blood on the rope was an aesthetic choice by Martin Scorsese, it was one of two images that had struck him upon visiting boxing matches (the other being the blood-soaked sponge used across the boxer’s back used in the beginning of the scene), but holding onto that final image drills in the horror of the scene (after all, it’s common in horror films to end a death with dripping blood.)

In fact, horror was the feel that Scorsese was really going for in the sequence. He had been troubled about how to edit the final fight (especially the bit where Robinson was punching La Motta against the ropes) and took inspiration from the original shot list from the shower sequence in Psycho. The final fight scene in Raging Bull boils down to the emotion it gives the audience through editing.

Emotion is what editing boils down to in general. It’s like Walter Murch claims in his book In the Blink of an Eye, the most important aspect in choosing a cut is emotion. So, it’s no wonder that Raging Bull, a movie that in just one scene connects and disconnects its audience to the main character, raises anxiety, and causes a sense of despair can be rated as the best-edited movie by the Motion Picture Editors Guild.

Sources:

Murch, Walter. In the Blink of an Eye: A Perspective on Film Editing. Los Angeles, CA: Silman-James, 2001. Print.

"Robot Check." Robot Check. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 May 2016.

Tapley, Kristopher. "Film Editors Pick the 75 Best-edited Movies of All Time." HitFix. N.p., 03 Feb. 2015. Web. 08 May 2016.

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