Daily Dialogue — July 24, 2013

“You fucked my wife!”

— Raging Bull (1980), screenplay by Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin, book by Jake LaMotta with Joseph Carter and Peter Savage

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is tantrums, suggested by Aarthi Ramanathan. Today’s suggestion is by Kalen.

Trivia: Mardik Martin wrote the most traditional, linear script for the film (more of a traditional Jake LaMotta biography), but backed off on the project due to exhaustion after months of research. Paul Schrader made several changes to the script, including making, Joey La Motta, Jake’s brother, the second most prominent character (by combining his actions with that of Jake’s friend, Peter Savage) and starting the story in the middle of La Motta’s career rather than at the beginning. Although they kept Schrader’s overall structure, Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro spent 5 weeks rewriting his version of the script until they had exactly the film they wanted (Scorsese and De Niro are uncredited as screenwriters for the film).

Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary from Kalen: “I’m a huge Raging Bull fan. Lots of great meltdowns/tantrums in that film, but this one is probably my favorite. It starts off so slow but heat up into unbridled self destruction. Just brilliant.”

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