Raging Bull

Today, I'm talking about the movie Raging Bull, but I'm writing specifically about the Cerdan Fight scene, where Jake LaMotta (Robert De Niro), an Italian American middleweight boxer, fights against another boxer. fIn this article, I'm focusing more in the technical characteristics on the scene more than in the story itself.

First, there is this "Walking to the ring" part, where we can see that the camera work is a tracking shot, which is used to follow a moving subject by travelling alongside it. It can be filmed by a vehicle with an on-board mount, or by a long track set up following the line of movement. It makes us see everything that's going on in one shot.

Second, there is this entrance to the ring where we can clearly see a panning within the fight zone, focusing the referee and then it quickly passes to Jake LaMotta making us feel more interested in about what will happen next. When we see the referee, the camera makes a close-up take to him, and then it makes a medium close-up shot to the boxer so that we can see that the former is pointing the latter meaning that the fight is about to start.

Starting the fight, we can see that the camera is only focusing on the two of them, meaning the camera work is making a two-shot, with a medium shot, and when they start beating each other we can see a worm's eye camera angle so we can see their boxing gloves properly and see them fighting in a clear way. We can see what's going on by being beneath them.

At the end of the fight, when Jake LaMotta wins, there is a slow motion to make it more dramatic making us think that this is the moment he has been waiting for, and we, like them, can enjoy his victory. We can see the camera creating a canted angle in LaMotta from ped up to ped down also in slow motion as part of the elements of victory.

As celebration of the victory at the end of the fight, we can see the camera makes a tilt at LaMotta when the referee puts his belt on and an extreme close-up to see the boxer's face's reaction and what he might be feeling. Then, we can see a worm's eye to De Niro when he raises his hands as a sign of victory.