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.