Raging Bull isn't just one of the greatest films ever made — it's the true story of a fighter who admitted, in his own memoir, that he threw a fight for the mob to buy his title shot. On this episode of Popcorn & Piledrivers, we go deep on Jake LaMotta: the six-fight war with Sugar Ray Robinson, the 1947 Billy Fox fix and his stunning 1960 Senate testimony admitting to it, his 1949 middleweight title win over Marcel Cerdan, the "St. Valentine's Day Massacre" title loss, and the wild, tragic 53 years of his life the film never shows — nightclubs, a chain gang, Broadway, seven marriages, and two sons lost in the same year.
We also cover Robert De Niro's obsessive prep (1,000+ rounds sparring with the real LaMotta, a 60-pound weight gain), Scorsese almost turning the project down entirely, Joe Pesci and Cathy Moriarty's against-the-odds discoveries, what happened to the rest of the cast (including a co-star's real-life stalker attack), how the film stacks up against LaMotta's own confessional memoir and the actual boxing record, and which current boxing, wrestling, and MMA stars belong in a modern version of this story.
Listen to the audio version:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1594255707
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4IpirI4FyHQA3BRMhwei5X
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