Where The Hell Was My Mind When This Film First Came Out??????????????????????????????????

 

                                      Well, I will tell you.  In 1980 I was 25, and filled with delight over having seen Betsy Palmer give it her all for the first time in "Friday The 13th."   I could not stop talking about it  for several months.  Then "Ordinary People" came out.  The film version of Judith Guest's novel about a family torn apart by one son's death and the other's suicide attempt and survivor guilt.  Where my life was at the time I latched onto this film, seeing it over and over.  There was a period where, each Friday night after work--I was working in NYC then--I would go to a theater showing this film, watch it, then take the bus to Jersey back home.  The film tapped into my insatiable need to leave suburbia.

                                           I knew about "Raging Bull," but what did I care?  A fight movie?  Who the hell was Jake La Motta?  I never even saw "Rocky!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                                          That was then, this is now.  Having just seen the Scorsese master work for the first time, I can say it should have won Best Picture. Scorsese Best Director, and De Niro Best Actor,

                                             I never realized Cathy Moriarity was so pretty.  Not to mention one hell of an actress.  But the true star of the film, beside De Niro is Michael Chapman's black and white cinematography which captures beauty and violence in poetic ways that left this viewer stunned. He also resorts to period color shots of milestone events in the characters' lives that, with special lighting almost captures the richness of color from past eras.

                                                 Oh, and not to forget Joe Pesci as La Motta's brother, and his wife played by the lovely but tragic Theresa Saldana, whose work here indicates that, had she lived, she would have gone somewhere as an actress.  But she was stuck down by a stalker in 2016

                                                   De Niro runs the gamut in this, from athletic to obese.  He looks almost unrecognizable and grotesque.

                                                    And the film, like "Brief Encounter," is a flashback.

                                                    I have to say it is one of the most handsomely made films I have seen. Nothing in the theaters now equals this, and I doubt ever will again.  Which is why I am returning to older movies and ones I have never seen on here.

                                                       There was nothing wrong with "Raging Bull."  The problem was at the time it came out; I just was not ready for it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!