Boxing at the Oscars or Bowling for Buzzards?
**fyi - there'll be a slew of posts including a variety of commentaries, reviews, etc. that are totally out of order. in short: time of post does not indicate time of literary conception.**
Today I saw 2 great boxing movies. Raging bull by martin scorsese featuring Tribeca's finest, Robbie D. & the second movie, The Great White [American] Hope feat. the very talented James Earl Jones (aka long ago and far away, aka Darth Vader). Scorsese's film is visceral, it hits you where it hurts, it starts out all fun and games and goes into a downward spiral of human depravation, degradation, and destitution. Robbie D gives an excellent performance. In both movies, the fighter, the hero, the protag. ends up a loser, not a winner, not a winner in any sense of the word. The irony, La Motta loses to Sugar ray and Johnson loses to some caucasian guy (read: not Italian)
In raging bull, joe pesci gives an A+ performance as La Motta's brother and manager. He also sports a nice mustache towards the end of the movie. Basically, Jake's a middleweight prize fighter, goes down in the end loses everything, ends up in jail, ends up a big fatso opening shows at various nightclubs. The last scene is about as emotionally real as it gets, that's what hits you about the movie, its so damn visceral, so damn down to the nitty gritty of human nature - human emotion. We're all inclined to think, "nah that La Motta is borderline OCD, he's borderline Schizo..." but I'm telling you we're all like him. It's a sad, but human state of affairs.
Final Tap: Whats the obsession with boxing? What are its origins? This whole bit reminds me of another great boxing movie - Guy Ritchie's Snatch. On another train - I've never seen Rocky straight thru & don't have much motivation to check out million dollar baby. Turn me into a believer... if you can.
posted by Charon @ 3/06/2005
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