How Raging Bull breaks Hollywood Tradition with its Sound Editing
Martin Scorcese’s 1980 film, “Raging Bull,” is the incredible true story of middleweight boxer Jake LaMotta as he tries for the middleweight crown. As LaMotta rises through the ranks, he falls in love with a younger girl from the Bronx, but his helplessness at communicating his emotions takes over and leads him on a depressive downward spiral for the rest of his life. “Raging Bull” is a well-respected Hollywood film and is hailed as one of the greatest biopics. While the film is renowned as a Hollywood masterpiece because of the gritty, noir-style storytelling, the film breaks Hollywood tradition by using untraditional sound design to demonstrate the film’s themes of alienation, redemption, masochism, sexual anxiety, and masculinity.
Martin Scorsese and sound designer Frank Warner succeed with “Raging Bull” by capturing the authenticity of Jake LaMotta through different types of sound design used. Score, sound effects, and background music are all used in harmony and on their own to create a striking but untraditional film. LaMotta is an obsessive, self-destructive, and flawed character, so using the different types of sounds lets the audience in on the anger in LaMotta’s head. The different types of sound used in the film enhance the action and energy on-screen.
One scene where we can hear unconventional use of sound is When LaMotta is fighting Sugar Ray Robinson. As LaMotta and Robinson fight in the ring, animal noises are used alongside drums. The audience can hear the bray of an elephant and horse shutters, but they are subtle and distorted as we hear drum beats. Animal sounds and taps of a drum are not typically used together, but this unorthodox sound combination gives the scene in the boxing ring dimension and character.
Another interesting use of sound in this film is when LaMotta fights Janiro. Sound in this film is used to mask and accentuate cuts, and we see this very clearly in the scene when LaMotta accepts his win. We hear and see the pop of the flashbulbs from the paparazzi cameras surrounding LaMotta as we hear the announcer declare LaMotta’s victory over Janiro. As the flashbulbs pop, sharp cuts match the sounds perfectly.
Of the most distinctive ways that sound is used in this film is through its silence. We hear this untraditional use of silence in the scene where LaMotta fights Robinson toward the film’s end. As the camera zooms in on Robinson, it is deafeningly quiet. The camera cuts to a zoom-in of LaMotta, then quickly cuts to Robinson punching LaMotta. We hear the many punches that continue after loud and clear. There is no music, score, or any other type of sound used in those shots, just the sounds of a boxing glove belligerently hitting a face. If it weren't for the silence right before, the sound of the punches to LaMotta’s face would not have had the same shock factor.
The film’s unconventional and exaggerated use of sound design is used to capture and create moods and support the film’s beautiful cinematography. Scorsese and Warner’s sound design is unprecedented and ahead of its time. “Raging Bull” is an incredible film with a main character whose mental state and morals are muddled, immoral, and disorienting, and the sound design of the film reflects that exquisitely.
