While viewing Raging Bull, I was very puzzled by the music used in the film.
The use of radio sound, or of a live band during a scene in a club, is pretty transparent. This kind of music exists in the background, filling out the notion of 'place' in a particular scene. It helps create the location and its atmosphere.
More confusing is the other part of the film's music: the Intermezzo from Pietro Mascagni's opera Cavalleria Rusticana. Interestingly enough, the plot of the opera revolves around infidelity. It's a trope of the genre, to be sure, but marital distress is clearly a topic in Raging Bull as well.
But the average movie-goer doesn't know that trivia and won't make that connection. I didn't know it prior to looking it up just know. The Intermezzo registers as beautiful, lyrical, romantic to our ears. When we hear classical music, we connect it to grace and dignity. So what is it doing in this film?
Well, maybe it's a way of humanzing LaMotta. This music plays over the opening credits (which portray LaMotta pacing in the corner of a boxing ring), during a montage showing his early days with Vicki, and during boxing scenes. Despite all of the violence that Jake perpetrates, maybe this theme is supposed to create some empathy in the viewer.
Or, maybe the Intermezzo is used to portray a more complex version of boxing. What we see on screen is all violence-flurries of punches, bruised faces, and blood on the ropes. And sometimes, as in the case of the Robinson fight, the sound emphasizes this brutality. But perhaps the Intermezzo is here to avoid one-dimensionality. To capture the dance, while the visuals capture the fight.
I do think its like a dance, mostly due to the fact that it is so dramatized especially the scene with Sugar Ray having the upper hand. I suppose the music could also speak towards his marital issues as something that is always effecting him. It gives him rage, so perhaps he shows it not only outside of but also inside of the ring.
ReplyDeleteThat's really interesting , I didn't really know about the opera thing until I read this and I think it actually adds more depth to the film than it already had. Looking on it now I think perhaps it is a way to give LaMotta some more humanization, especially due to what we see him do throughout the film. I feel like it also adds some more grace to this overall very gritty film.
ReplyDeleteI think that the film's sound in general and the music specifically is one of the most complex elements of the film so I'm glad that you raised this observation. I like your observation that the piece reminds us of the poetic and dance elements of boxing since the visuals remind us so often of its brutality. I also think, as you say, this particular theme speaks to the theme of martial infidelity that is the film's secondary theme.
ReplyDeleteI think the drama and drawn out crescendos of opera work well with the boxing and generally with how Scorcese builds tension with combining factors. It's cool to know that it's about infidelity too, since it works better as a specific musical theme for LaMotta.
ReplyDelete