![]() ![]() The image was that of a wet sponge being squeezed onto the bloodied face of a boxer. He went to some fights in New York City with fellow director Brian De Palma, and he still didn’t understand boxing, but an image stuck out to him that gave him a way into the story. After a near fatal drug overdose and the critical and commercial failure of New York, New York (1977), Scorsese was on the rocks and decided to give Jake LaMotta another look. He didn’t understand sports, but De Niro was persistent that they tell this story together. These were movies he didn’t even realize were hacked to bits in the editing process when they were prepared for television. Scorsese grew up as an asthmatic who locked himself away in movie houses and in the confines of his living room, where he would watch late night Italian neo-realist features. He kept insisting to Scorsese that they should make this film together, but Scorsese couldn’t find his way into the text. Shortly after Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese began their career together with 1973’s Mean Streets, De Niro read Jake LaMotta’s autobiography and became obsessed with the boxer. ![]()
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