Robert De Niro wanted to do Raging Bull as a play, too. Vickie LaMotta was open enough to the idea of a movie about her ex-husband that she let Martin visit her in Florida and pick her brain about her relationship with the volatile pugilist. “Lived with” is how he phrased it on the 30th anniversary Blu-ray.

For research, Raging Bull screenwriter Mardik Martin lived with Jake LaMotta's ex-wife for a few days. This glut actually helped Scorsese convince United Artists to let him shoot Raging Bull in black-and-white, as it would make his boxing movie stand out visually from the others. In late 1978 and early 1979, when Scorsese was getting started on Raging Bull, there were at least four others in the works: Rocky II, The Main Event, The Champ, and Matilda (the boxing kangaroo). Rocky started a trend, as movies that win Best Picture often do. Raging Bull was one of several boxing movies being shot around the same time. When those same producers approached that same studio about doing another boxing movie, the studio said, “A sequel to Rocky? Sure!” That wasn’t what they had in mind (though they did soon enough), but in the meantime, Rocky’s huge success was enough to sell UA on another boxing movie. Rocky was produced by Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff, and released by United Artists.

Raging Bull partially owes its existence to Rocky.Ĭomparisons to that other Oscar-winning boxing movie from four years earlier were inevitable, but the two were actually connected. Here are 15 facts to enhance your next viewing of one of the best sports dramas ever made. It’s the movie where the guy who would later play Coach on Cheers sees a handsome boxer get mutilated and says, “He ain’t pretty no more.” It’s Raging Bull, and it will punch you in the face. It’s the movie that earned Martin Scorsese his first nomination for Best Director. It’s the movie that won Robert De Niro his Oscar for Best Actor.

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