Raging Bull: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

(Capitol)

First Appeared in The Music Box, August 2005, Volume 12, #8

Written by John Metzger

"When you think of moments from your own life, you remember feelings and the way that different sights and sounds and textures connect to those feelings," writes director Martin Scorsese in the liner notes to Raging Bull: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. "For all of us, the places we grew up and the feelings we experienced within those places remain inseparable."

This simple philosophy summarizes precisely what it is about Scorsese that distances him from his peers. Throughout his film-making career, he consistently has immersed his characters within the sights, sounds, and textures of the worlds that surround them, and in doing so, he has succeeded in transforming them into living, breathing entities to which an audience can relate fully. It’s impossible to imagine Good Fellas without the songs of Tony Bennett, Bobby Darin, and Derek and the Dominoes simply because the aural and visual components of the movie are so indivisible. Such was the case, too, with the making of Raging Bull. In adopting Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana: Intermezzo as the film’s unofficial theme, Scorsese added new dimensions to the composition while effectively underscoring his tragic tale in which love is reduced to all-consuming jealousy and in which punishment is a substitute for confession, penance, and absolution. "I need no shackles to remind me," sings Russ Columbo on Prisoner of Love to which Bing Crosby responds on Just One More Chance, "I’ve learned the meaning of repentance; now, you’re the jury at my trial."

In the early phases of his career, Scorsese already had demonstrated a unique knack for employing music in such a manner as to infuse his films with the intimate aura of reality, but Raging Bull was the project that carried his vision into an entirely new and different realm. With the help of Robbie Robertson, Scorsese selected the material that was best suited to the atmosphere that he was trying to convey, and in presenting songs that ranged from Louis Prima & Keely Smith’s Just a Gigolo/I Ain’t Got Nobody to Nat King Cole’s Mona Lisa and from Frank Sinatra’s Come Fly with Me to The Hearts’ Lonely Nights — the duo added additional commentary that seemed to spring from within the soul of the film’s central characters, primarily Jake LaMotta.

So intertwined is the story with its accompanying music that those who have seen Raging Bull likely will be able not only to identify precisely the moments in which each track was utilized but also to recognize instantly the specific thought that was meant to be revealed. The problem, however, comes for those who haven’t seen the film because without the storyline, the songs lose some of their potency. Nevertheless, Raging Bull: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is still a superb collection that artistically fuses together an array of opera, pop, jazz, and blues selections in order to sketch an impressionistic portrait of its own emotional journey. ½

Raging Bull: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
is available from Barnes & Noble. To order, Click Here!

Ratings

1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!

Copyright © 2005 The Music Box