OT: Jake LaMotta has died

[Adesmar123]

96 and broke all the health rules...we should be so lucky!

 

[meyers7]

96 and broke all the health rules...we should be so lucky!

Wow, I didn't realize he had been still alive. May he RIP.

 

[eebmg]

Not the resting type. Picking fights at the pearly gates.

 

[bob neal]

Who was he ???

 

[Adesmar123]

Who was he ???

World Middleweight Champion

The movie Raging Bull was about him. It starred Robert DeNiro. He was a pucher and got punched a lot. He also became a comedian.

 

[JustinesGuy]

I know they were different weight classes but I wonder if a 40 year old Lamotta would best a 20 yr old Clay.

 

[JordyG]

Jake and Robinson fought 5 times because no one else wanted to get in the ring with Sugar. Jake didn't care who was across from him. Jake didn't care that he lost to Ray 4 times. He had more guts and heart than Graziano, Zale and all the other middleweights of the time combined. Rocky and Tony fought each other 3 times because in truth they were afraid to fight Ray or Jake. Frankly though I've always bristled because of the fame Jake received because of the film. Ray, the greatest welterweight, middleweight, and one of the greatest light heavyweights of all time has never had a film done of him for lack of funding. Lack of funding. This of course is not fault of Jake and shouldn't detract at all from his greatness and glory. But where are the films chronicling Sugar or even Louis Armstrong, the most important figure in modern popular music? Hopefully their time will come.

 

[connie]

Jake and Robinson fought 5 times because no one else wanted to get in the ring with Sugar. Jake didn't care who was across from him. Jake didn't care that he lost to Ray 4 times. He had more guts and heart than Graziano, Zale and all the other middleweights of the time combined. Rocky and Tony fought each other 3 times because in truth they were afraid to fight Ray or Jake. Frankly though I've always bristled because of the fame Jake received because of the film. Ray, the greatest welterweight, middleweight, and one of the greatest light heavyweights of all time has never had a film done of him for lack of funding. Lack of funding. This of course is not fault of Jake and shouldn't detract at all from his greatness and glory. But where are the films chronicling Sugar or even Louis Armstrong, the most important figure in modern popular music? Hopefully their time will come.

Sugar Ray's life would certainly provide the occasion for a very good film. Naturally, that depends on the treatment of the subject and purpose of the film. It wasn't so much LaMotta's life story that made Raging Bull a great film; it is the film's effective exploration of the violence that lies near the core of masculine sexuality identity, all played out through Jake's possessive, paranoiac fixation with Vicki, displaced and articulated in the ring, and its destructive consequences on his relationship with Joey. The film transcends the artifice of a mere bio-pic. In the end, Jake learns to forgive himself, a stepping stone to love and redemption. And it is all done in a way that strikes one as recognizable and real. It also helps to have a great cast, tight script, superior editing, purposeful cinematography, and one of the world's great directors at the helm.

The film critic Robin Wood speaks eloquently on the film in one of his books (Hollywood: From Vietnam to Reagan).

In the meantime, I highly recommend "Sweet Thunder: The Life And Times of Sugar Ray Robinson", by Wil Haygood. (I have an autographed copy.)

 

[Monte]

96 and broke all the health rules...we should be so lucky!

I loved his nickname: "The Raging Bull."........Over the years, whenever I see a basketball player play every single minute, of every single game with unlimited determination, I think of that name.