The Extended Story of Raging Bull

This edition of the blog will discuss what is widely known as the greatest sports movie ever made.  Of course, some people will argue that it really is not a sports movie.

That is because it really is not a sports movie.  It is a movie about a tragically flawed athlete.

That athlete is Jake LaMotta, and the reason the movie about his life is so personal, is because the screenplay was adapted from LaMotta's memoir, "Raging Bull: My Story", with Joseph Carter and Peter Savage.

Of course, the movie is simply titled "Raging Bull", starring Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci, directed by the great Martin Scorcese.

Now if you have not seen "Raging Bull", I suggest you stop reading this right now and go watch it.

Actually, better yet, keep reading, then click off this blog and come back over and over to artificially inflate my pageviews, THEN go watch it.  It is really well done, and some of the best work you will see from either DeNiro or Scorcese (Pesci's best work comes with "Home Alone" and "My Cousin Vinny", but he is good here too).

For those that have seen the movie, I know you liked it, and I know that even though you may not have liked the character of Jake LaMotta, you were certainly compelled by him.  The movie begins with him as he is looking for a title shot, and getting involved with the mob to do so.  

The memoir, however, dives into his life as a juvenile delinquent, his time in prison, and even more and more of his unreal obsession with his wife, that often became violent with jealousy.  The movie is so real, and really turns this athlete into a human.  The memoir will only further that feeling.

How to Blind Side your Audience and Collect a Huge Paycheck

On this NFL Draft weekend, I want to take a look at one of last year's greatest draft stories, Michael Oher of Ole Miss, now a star on the Baltimore Ravens.  For those who do not recognize the name, you might remember him as the fat black kid from "The Blind Side" who got adopted by Sandra Bullock.

I think people actually know that "The Blind Side" is actually a book first.  I think that, or maybe I would just like to think that.  The book employs the subtitle "Evolution of a Game".

That subtitle is key, because that is the part people do not know.  One of my mother's friends loved the movie.  She thought it was adorable how the sweet white lady came in and saved poor Michael Oher from the ghetto.  She was inspired that a 5'2", 115 pound woman with a strange southern accent stepped in front of 6'4", 313 pound man.

She did not enjoy the book.  Why?  My guess is because the movie is the story of the southern belle who saved the African-American youth from a life of crack and illegitimate children, or whatever Sandra Bullock's character is saving him from.  The book, on the other hand, is about football.  It's primary "plotline" is how the emergence of outside linebackers Lawrence Taylor changed the entire theories of how to play defense, and birthed a 3-4 defense reliant on passrushing linebackers rather than a dominating defensive line.

If you were confused about that last sentence, imagine how she felt being blind sided (pun intended) with pages upon pages of that stuff when all she wanted to do was feel good about being white.

I don't know what author Michael Lewis was thinking, taking this gripping story that draws in the demographics that do not care about football, and mixing it with some very complex football gameplanning theories, heavy with jargon and inside knowledge that would appeal to the most intense fan, surrounding one of the game's most polarizing players.

Well, maybe I do know what Lewis was thinking, since he has a book that will be paying his rent for a long, long time.

Just Trying to Win

Glory Road is the title of the autobiography of Din Haskins, Hall of Fame coach of Texas Western College (now UTEP).  It is the story of how his Texas Western team ran through the NCAA tournament with three black starters, then unheard of, and met all-time great Adolph Rupp's Kentucky Wildcats in the national championship game.

Except when they got to that game, they changed their game completely.  If you saw the movie, it seemed unfair.  This was a team that certainly used black players more than other schools, but at the same time they did have a few white starters and white contributors.  I watch the scene where Coach Haskins tells the white players that not only will they not start the game, but that they will not play a minute in the championship.

Immediately, I feel like that is a rotten thing.  He can say whatever he wants, but it seems like he is trying to make a statement.  It becomes more than the game, and I believe that for kids who want to win, it should not be about more than the game.  The white players started and played all year, and are portrayed as very good players.  It feels like their moment is being stolen from them.

What we are not told is the stats.  The four white players, and one hispanic player, combined to average 6.2 points per game for the season.  That's right.  Five players, six points.  The seven black players together averaged over 75 points per game.  The black player with the fewest points averaged more than the five non-black players combined.

Those five players also hit shots and a significantly lower percentage than their black teammates.  We do not see those stats in the movie.  Coach Haskins in real life always says he just wanted to put his best players on the court in the championship game, and for the people who only saw the movie, it sounds like a farce.  It sounds like he is trying to make history.

He wasn't.  His best players were on the court.  That is how you win the game, and that is what any winning coach would have done, whether history was on the line or not.

Rope Burns

I assume (stupidly maybe) that we have all seen Million Dollar Baby, the best picture winner from 2004.  I don't know about you, but I remember Clint Eastwood walking around all curmudgeonly, whispering things under his breath in the way only Clint could.  Complaining about how much he hates female boxers.

It was a fun time.  The movie was actualy based on short stories written by Jerry Boyd, under the name F.X. Toole, in a book titled Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner.  Boyd was actually a trainer and a cutman (he has a show in development on AMC under that title), and Hilary Swank's character Maggie is based on a girl he worked with.

I know some will argue the book is always better than the movie, and that is a debate I enjoy indulging every chance I get.  While Rope Burns was published to good reviews, I never really felt a part of any of the short stories.  On the other hand, that movie (which seems to be polarizing, some loved it some hated it) really does draw the viewer in.  It makes you feel a part of it, where the book does not capture the attention in that way.

No matter how curmudgeonly you are, or how much you hate women's sports, like Eastwood's character  Maggie slowly tears away at you until you finally get behind her (spiritually, not sexually).  This is two weeks in a row the book has been outdone by the film (Hoop Dreams), and the great sports books need to fight back.

Remember the Story, Not the Book

Before the Apprentice and the Jersey Shore, and Big Brother and the Real World, reality television existed.  It existed in the form of game shows and Miss America pageants and the likes.  However, the birth of reality television as our generation knows it would surprise you.

The first mainstream use of many tactics we relate to reality television, such as 24-7 filming, one person confessionals, and obsessive invasion of privacy (for lack of a better phrasing) really originated in “Hoop Dreams”.  For those not familiar with the film, it followed the lives of two high school freshmen looking to make basketball teams and work their way to the NBA.  These two kids, Arthur Agee and William Gates (who are among a class that included Michigan’s Fab Five), are seen sitting in their living rooms at age 14 and continued to be filmed throughout their high school careers and returned to during their college careers.  Although neither of them reached the professional level, their story is powerful and worth remembering.

This blog is supposed to be about the books that set up the movie, and of course, this in depth look into their personal life is an unscripted tale.  Interestingly enough though, after the movie’s release Ben Jorvasky was approached to write a book based on their story.  This could spark a debate on why?  The whole book is better than the movie thing works when the book has more breadth and goes more in depth into the characters than does the movie.  However, this movie is two hours and forty-five minutes of interviews with real people.  We are brought into the bedrooms of these two kids, and we see them at the ages of 14 all the way until they are 20 or 21.  The book is no substitute for that experience, for hearing them talk about what they want and reflect about that later.  Even the most imaginative writer would be hard-pressed to one up them.

Also, we know the stories.  I assume the reader of this book would most likely be someone who watched the movie.  The switching of scenes between Arthur and William are choppy at best in the book, and each chapter is marked with an epigraph, which is really just a weak quotation from a family member or coached, really only pertaining to one of the kids and not the other.

The book becomes a transcription of the movie, more than it offers new perspective on any aspect.  Scenes that seem so revealing of character in the movie are lost in writing.  The most memorable moment of the entire film is the final words, while William Gates is describing how he does not think about playing in the NBA as much anymore, and that he would be happy if he stopped playing basketball, over a video of him talking on the phone with his wife and daughter.  “That’s why when somebody says ‘When you get to the NBA, don’t forget about me’ and all that stuff, I should say ‘Well if I don’t make it don’t you forget about me.”  This line, followed by a soft smirk and a fade to black tells you everything you need to know about this young man and his journey. 

This line is paraphrased, well slightly misquoted near the end of the text.  It is not misquoted in an unfair way, but in a way that takes the emotion out of it.  I remember an interview with Steve James, one of the filmmakers, where the interviewer remarked that Gates had uttered the perfect line to end the film.  Steve James responded that he knew that would be the last line of the movie as he was hearing it.  Everyone else knew it, why not the author?

Those who have seen the film will certainly never forget the stories of Arthur Agee and William Gates.  They represent the thousands of young men and women who fall short of their high goals and never become household names, yet still are able to live admirably despite what others perceive as failures.  They will not be forgotten.  The book however, hopefully that will be forgotten.

The Natural's Arthurian Charm

Because this is the blog’s inaugural post, I will try to enlighten all you readers with a brief explanation of what to expect.

We are a generation that seeks to be constantly entertained (forgive me for that gross generality), and more than that, we desire instant gratification (also a gross generalization).  Our grandparents tell us of the days where they used to sit on the roof and look at the clouds, or paint the house, or watch the grass grow or whatever.  Good for them.  Today, we do not have time for that.  We do not want to hear a story.  We want everything in a little vacuum package in our 2-3 hour time block.  That is why we love movies and sports.  And every once in a while, those two things are morphed into one.  Well, often they are morphed into one, but once in a while it is actually worth watching.

What we do not realize is that these movies truly are, at their base, stories.  Many of these stories are adaptations from some of the better books we may never have heard of if not for the movies.  Actually, I would bet most of the people who enjoy these movies have no idea that they are the derivatives of books.  A lot of space on the blogosphere is dedicated to sports and movies, and in some cases for sports movies, but everyone should remember, that whether they are better or worse, these movies came from books.

Now that I have bored everyone, every week here one great sports movie will be discussed in terms of the book that inspired it, starting now, with “The Natural”.

Often referred to as the greatest sports movie of all-time, a title that is limited to this, Hoosiers, and Raging Bull, and not much else, “The Natural” is one of the most popular baseball stories ever told.  Starring Robert Redford and directed by Barry Levinson, it chronicles the life of fictitious baseball player Roy Hobbs.

Of course, this fictitious character is the brainchild of Bernard Malamud.  Malamud wrote the novel in the most traditional King Arthurian sense.  For those confused by that, our tragic hero (Hobbs) chases the holy grail (the National League pennant), and in the process, his flaws lead to the destruction of his Excalibur (the Wonderboy, his bat).  For those still confused, maybe books aren’t for you to begin with.

Ultimately, the movie sticks pretty close to the major themes of the novel, and does it justice, of course, aside from the ending.  Spoiler alert (by the way, you won’t here those words again from me on this blog) but in the movie we all know Hobbs hits the home run to win the game to be a hero and gets the girl.  Hip hip hooray for him. 

That is not how Malamud meant the Hobbs saga to end.  The novel ends with Hobbs striking out, losing everything, from the girl to his dignity.  It breaks him as a man, and is the tragic end to a flawed protagonist.  I do not know why they changed it for the movie, maybe because nobody believe Robert Redford could possibly lose out on a girl, which is quite plausible actually.

Is the book better than the movie?  I’d like to say yes for sure.  What I can say without a doubt, if you loved the movie, it might be worthwhile to take a look at the book, and see the story as it was originally meant to be told.