RDN: The way I remember it, it was Marty’s idea to bring in Schrader. De Niro talked Marty into it and then the two of them talked me into it. Paul Schrader: Raging Bull was not a film that I wanted to make. MS: The idea of, “Let’s get two guys into the ring and let them hit each other,” was something I didn’t – couldn’t – grasp. I knew that there was truth there somewhere but I wasn’t inclined to go and find it, because there was so much in the way. However, I was interested in the character. wasn’t a great book, but there was something about it, a jumping-off point, if you will. I am not sure why but I just felt there was more there to explore. It seems to me that this struggle with weight for a sportsman in retirement is very common, but with Jake it felt different. He had gained all that weight and that was what struck me.

He was standing out the front, in his suit and tie. Robert De Niro: I had actually seen Jake LaMotta working a strip club on Broadway. Here, those who made it share the secret of its success. In the four decades since its release, the film – co-starring Joe Pesci as LaMotta’s brother, Joey, and Cathy Moriarty as his wife, Vikki, written by Paul Schrader, edited by Thelma Schoonmaker and produced by Irwin Winkler – has achieved the status of a classic. Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull (1980), based on the life of Bronx boxer Jake LaMotta, was the director’s fourth film with Robert De Niro.

Raging bull the making of jay glennie