Every Stuart real estate owner who considers him or herself to be a fan of cinema should have Martin Scorsese’s hard-hitting classic from 1980, Raging Bull. Robert De Niro portrays the fierce rise and ugly fall of the 1940s’ and 50s’ real-life middleweight champ, Jake LaMotta. Known as the “Bronx Bull,” the life of the ferocious New Yorker is captured on the screen in artistic black and white, like LaMotta’s descriptions of his primal life in the 1970 autobiography of the same name. Scorsese’s Raging Bull ingeniously relives the boxer’s tragic life with the dark settings, self-destructiveness, and struggle for atonement.
Brought to the director by De Niro in 1973, Raging Bull entails one man’s powerless effort towards a goal, gaining it, and eventually losing everything important in his life. In 1941, LaMotta became a professional and angry fighter at age 20. Viewers in homes for sale in Stuart see that his home life was far from perfect. Early in the picture, De Niro begins yelling at his first wife about overcooking a steak. Shot on location, a neighbor who was unaware of the movie being made starts screaming at the “animal.”
De Niro’s portrayal of the crazed LaMotta is incredible. He begins as a thin-framed athlete in his twenties and transforms into a 215-pound middle-aged comedian. Never forgiving himself for taking a dive, LaMotta uses physical pain and brutal bloodshed in the ring to find redemption. The animalistic character expresses his emotions through violence due to his fiery upbringing. After all, his father made him into an adolescent street fighter for bread money. Onstage, LaMotta quotes a Marlon Brando scene from On the Waterfront. His words refer to making bad decisions and the unfortunate consequences that follow. The passage symbolizes LaMotta’s attempt to shift the blame for the mistakes in his career to his brother.
Out of Raging Bull’s eight Academy Awards nominations, the film only took home two Oscars: Best Film Editing by Thelma Schoonmaker and De Niro’s Best Actor after successfully transforming his body in an ultimate Method-acting performance. While the prizes are extremely well-deserved, most critics feel that Scorsese should’ve brought home the gold for Best Director and Best Picture, rather than Robert Redford’s Ordinary People. It wasn’t until 2006 that Scorsese won in the two crucial categories for The Departed.
Since the 1970s, Scorsese has been one of the most artistic directors the world has ever known. Born in 1942, the pioneer grew up in New York’s Little Italy. A member of the first film school generation, Scorsese’s work is rarely complex. When De Niro presented Paul Schrader’s brutal screenplay to the director in 1978, Scorsese was experiencing a mid-life crisis. His second marriage was falling apart and he fell into a deep depression. He was even hospitalized with internal bleeding. Scorsese recognized his despair and could immediately relate to the fighter’s frustrations. If Jake LaMotta could do it, men and women with Stuart luxury homes can do it as well.
Check out Raging Rudolph, a hilarious animated video spoof of Scorsese and De Niro films:
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Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Realty serves 19 counties throughout Florida with over 40 locations and approximately 1,800 Sales Professionals. The full-service brokerage company, founded in 1999, is a subsidiary of Lennar Corporation, a Fortune 500 company and is a franchise member of the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices’ network, one of the few organizations entrusted to use the world-renowned Berkshire Hathaway name. The company offers residential and commercial services as well as seasonal rentals, property management, REO & Foreclosures, corporate relocations, referral services, title, home service plans, and personal concierge services. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Realty ranks in the Top 10 in the network among 42,000 Sales Professionals, 1,200 offices throughout 47 states. The company is the overall No. 1 fundraiser for The Sunshine Kids Foundation, having generated more than $3.37 million since 2001. Visit www.BHHSFloridaRealty.com.
