How accurate was De Niro's portrayal of LaMotta in Raging Bull?

:goodI consider him the GOAT. You can't name another actor who's played so many top roles in so many great films.

 

Hit the nail on head, C

 

I second that ,compare it with some boxing flics from years gone by ,where the actors look soft as ****.I thought Scorcese captured the flavour of the times well too,excellent film imo.

 

Jimmy Stewart for one

 

De Niro: The Deer Hunter, The Godfather II, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, Once Upon a Time in America, Heat, Goodfellas, Casino, Mean Streets, The Untouchables, Brazil, Cape Fear, Awakenings, Jackie Brown, Midnight Run, Sleepers, This Boy's Life, A Bronx Tale, The King of Comedy, Meet the Parents, Analyze This, etc.

Take a look at that list, particularly at the top, and counter with your argument for Stewart.

 

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''.

 

In real life LaMotta spent most of his life thinking he had murdered a robbery victim, he admits in his book to having raped two girls, these three instances never made it into the movie and are a whole lot darker than anything that was portrayed in the movie. Furthermore, LaMotta continued this behavior well into old age. One of my friends told me he was walking down the street in New York one day and heard a scuffle coming from an alley. He peaked down the alley to see a grey haired LaMotta mugging a guy. He said 'Jake, what are you doing??' LaMotta shot back 'keepin in practice.' If you read his book Raging Bull 2 you see his behavior was horrid. He flitted in and out of relationships with women that he abused both mentally and physically. Gambled and squandered whatever money he got to the point where many times during his life he was little more than homeless. At one point when his wife/girlfriend is going in to labor with their baby Jake opts instead to stay home and get drunk while playing cards with Graziano and some of their friends rather than take his woman to the hospital and be there during the birth of his child. You can go on and on like this but the bottom line is that LaMotta was little more than an animal and much worse than he is portrayed in the movie. Great fighter, horrible human being.

 

He admits it all in his books!

 

That's funny, no? When you say, "mugging," he was actually robbing someone or it was just a street fight?

 

Maybe he was trying to sell a book BS?

 

Watched "Making of The Raging Bull", it's on YT.

DeNiro was the one who wanted to do that movie. Scorsese wasnt that keen cause he had other movie plans and wasnt big boxing fan. So I think that the character that we saw in that picture was all DeNiro's creation.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bOo1zZp7Lo