The film starts and except for the bold red lettering for the title of the film, the rest of the film's credits are white, superimposed on a grainy, black-and white scene. Boxer Jake La Motta (Robert De Niro), with his face hidden in the monk-like hood of his leopard-skin robe, warms up alone in the ring by shadowboxing into the smoky air, shown by a fixed long-shot through the ropes putting the audience the point of view from a spectator. The boxing ring symbolises his only reality where he most clearly expresses who he is and also his limitations, the boundaries and confinement of his life. He gracefully dances or jogs up and down - in slow motion - in the dreamy sequence to the melancholy soundtrack of the Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana (an opera by Pietro Mascagni). The music is sad, poetic, romantic, peaceful, and ironic because it is nothing at all like the man he is and yet in the ring the music fits because he is “poetry in motion.” It is a religious, almost spiritual environment in which he prepares for his ultimate battles.
White letters on a black background, a title card reads: New York City 1964.
The camera pans down a sign outside the Barbizon Plaza Theatre: "An Evening With Jake La Motta” then it cuts to “Tonight 8:30" and a man walks in front of the board. In voice-over, Jake La Motta speaks bridging the wipe to La Motta, alone in his dressing room where one medium-shot and then a cut to a close-up shot shows his huge broken nose. He is rehearsing for his nightclub appearance, reciting bits of Shakespearean tragedy, wearing a tuxedo and open shirt. His fantasy of disrobing in the ring and finding he has no shorts, presents the film's recurrent theme of sexual anxiety, fear, and confusion.
“I remember those cheers
They still ring in my ears
And for years they'll remain in my thoughts
Cuz one night I took off my robe
And what'd I do
I forgot to wear shorts.”
The rest of the film is a flashback - a look back at the middle-aged man's life to try to understand why he is reciting lines in his dressing room. The final words of the monologue: "That's entertainment," are sharply juxtaposed with the next scene, a close-up of young boxer La Motta receiving several rapid punches to the jaw in a different performing art, the sport of boxing.
Superimposed title card: Jake La Motta 1941.
The camera cuts to a medium shot of La Motta as he receives two blows to the head. According to the non-diegetic voice-over of the fight announcer, middleweight boxer La Motta is still undefeated. A fierce, up-and-coming boxing contender, La Motta fights in 1941 in Cleveland against black boxer Jimmy Reeves (Floyd Anderson). The blows to the boxers' faces are magnified by numbing stereophonic sound and shots from their point-of-view and then the camera shows a view from behind Jake looking over his shoulder. The impact of the punches, the glaring bright lights, and the pearls of sweat, which are flung off by every blow, are intensely real. Cut to a medium-low angle-shot of La Motta, known as the "Bronx Bull," with a raised fist just as a contrapuntal bell sounds for the end of the round. There is a close-up shot of Reeves turning back to his corner before the camera cuts to a long point of view shot that zooms in towards La Motta’s corner. In a close-up of Jake he is being told by his trainers and handlers that he is "out pointed" and to win the bout: "You're gonna have to knock him out." There is another point of view long-shot this time moving from Jakes corner towards Reeves. It cuts back to a close-up of Jake before a straight cut to the arena and a medium-shot pans across right to left, a woman screams and a fight breaks out between a fan and a soldier.
When the impressionistically filmed fight resumes in the ring, there is an eye level close-up shot of Reeves from behind that pans around the boxer’s face showing his concentration. The camera cuts to a close-up of two gloves touching at the beginning of the final round. La Motta half crouches in a closed-in position and "continues to bore in." Scorsese even enters the ears of the boxers, where their single-mindedness transforms the aural circus around them into a world strangely muffled, as if wrapped in cotton wool. He knocks Reeves down to the mat, as he falls on his back and Bird’s eye view at medium-shot zooms out quickly. Flashbulbs explode and clink and the crowd erupts shown in a series of close ups. With a couple more "hard lefts," La Motta pummels him hard and knocks down his unprotected opponent a second time. A floor level camera shows Reeves struggle to get up. Close-up shots of Jake smashing toward the camera, as if toward the boxer show a sense of his obsessiveness and lack of control as he knocks him down again for a third time in a comeback attempt in the final round. A medium-shot of Jake shows him being hauled away by the official. Blood oozes from the boxer's eye as the countdown reaches nine, but Reeves is "saved by the bell" at the end of the round shown by an extreme close-up. An aerial view shows Reeves dragged to his corner by his trainers in a long shot that tracks their movement. We see La Motta proudly stride around the ring with arms raised up at spectator point of view level through the ropes; his brother/manager Joey (Joe Pesci) bestows the victor's mantle on him - a leopard-skin robe. There is a medium-shot of Reeves and then it cuts to a close-up of Jake’s face before cutting to a close-up of the ring announcer that pans slowly. It cuts back to a close-up of La Motta as the ring announcer declares Reeves "the winner by unanimous decision." The camera cuts to the announcer in a medium-shot and then back to a La Motta close-up to show his pain. A long-shot of Reeves shows he can’t stand up. Outside the ring the crowd are angry at the decision and one man shouts that Jake should have won. A close-up followed by a medium-shot of La Motta shows him wave his arms in glory and throw the robe out of the ring in disgust. There is a close-up shot of Joey and Jake where he tells his brother to refuse in leaving the ring first. Pandemonium reigns in the arena. An angry fracas breaks out in the crowd over La Motta's controversial first defeat – a chair is thrown in a long-shot and Reeves is carried out of the arena in a medium-shot. One female spectator is trampled shown at floor level and we hear her diegetic scream. A medium-shot of the organist with the ring in the background shows that the rioting crowd violence is partially quelled when the organist begins playing: "The Star Spangled Banner"(The American National Anthem). There is a straight cut to a long-shot where a man is thrown from the ring into the crowd just before the sequence ends.
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De Niro’s performance is the most overwhelming of his career, immersing himself in the role by completely altering his physical appearance first as a lean boxer before bloating out with 50 pounds more weight for the films ending.
Although the fight scenes seem to occupy much of the film, their screen time totals only ten minutes. The fighting and other battles in his personal life make up the remainder of the film.
Robert De Niro had received an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in “The Godfather: Part II” (1974) and was nominated twice for Best Actor in a Leading Role in Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver” (1976) and “The Deer Hunter” (1978). Since then he has had two more nominations in “Awakenings” (1990) and Scorsese’s version of “Cape Fear” (1991).
