BoxRec

Recently watched a documentary with LaMotta speaking on De Niro's unbeleivable commitment to playing his life story.

Obviously he gained the sixty odd pounds to show the distiction between era's but LaMotta said he shadowed him everywhere he went and boxed over 1000 rounds in preparation for the movie..!!

That was equivalent to around 66 15 round title fights. He also commented that in his estimation De Niro could have easily turned pro in 1980 when the film was shot.

Obviously he made the right choice fanancially besides he would have debuted in an era dominated by the fabulous four.

All here say and probably old news but just raised an eyebrow.

Jedi Knight wrote:
That was equivalent to around 66 15 round title fights. He also commented that in his estimation De Niro could have easily turned pro in 1980 when the film was shot.

Obviously he made the right choice fanancially besides he would have debuted in an era dominated by the fabulous four.

De Niro was born on 17 August 1943 which means he would have been 37 when turning pro.

It's a good thing he stuck to acting.

There's always that kind of talk from director's and people involved in boxing productions. I think it needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. For a more realistic forecast of how De Niro would have done, had he turned pro, look to Mickey Rourke when he 'sparred' Carlos Monzon: Monzon KO1.

Barry McGuigan said many goods things about Daniel Day-Lewis who he trained for his part in the 1997 film The Boxer.

As did Dundee about Will Smith for the Ali film.

I to take these things with a pinch of salt.

Little bit of trivia here:

In the scene where Pesci is wearing a body protector and Deniro is pummeling him, Pesci let's out one very convincing little "Agh!"; DeNiro broke his rib.

KOJOE90 wrote:Barry McGuigan said many goods things about Daniel Day-Lewis who he trained for his part in the 1997 film The Boxer.

As did Dundee about Will Smith for the Ali film.

I to take these things with a pinch of salt.

Exactly. It is part of the PR for the film. De Niro might have been incredibly committed and fit, but there is no way he could do anything. Looking at the fight footage, he looks like an actor playing a boxer not a boxer. He doesn't move like a boxer or throw correct punches.

Anyway as for Lamotta's comment that 'DE Niro could've turned pro' well, anyone can turn pro, especially in America. You just need to pass the medical....

As for Daniel Day Lewis, he trained down the Fitzroy Lodge, and Mark Reigate (who is definitely NOT a liberty taker) knocked him out TWICE by mistake!!!!!!

I may stand alone here but I don't rate the film Raging Bull as highly as many fight fans do.

It's a good film but not great in my opinion.

It's a great film, but the fight scenes are shit, totally unrealistic, but then they aren't supposed to be, they are dramatised versions of fights.

i remember someone saying something ridiculous like Deniro could have been a top 5 middleweight had he turned pro earlier in life. bullshit, all of it is just bullshit to help sell the film. Boxers also like actors, and vice versa, it's a bit of joint ego masturbation.

Agree with most of you this is just promotional talk from LaMotta, I was just amazed at the amount of rounds he sparred. Didn't have to do nearly that many in my opinion.

Another bit of trivia about this film; allot of the scenes with De niro and Pesci are of the cuff and not in the script. Aparently Scorsese encouraged this in many of his actors to give a sense of realness.

scorcese has done it in lots of films, it's part of the reason he uses the same actors in so many, they had a certain rapport which enabled them to do that. watch Mean streets, which is kind of like a trial run for Goodfellas, you can tell that most of the dialogue is improvised. Apparently the famous scene in goodfellas which culminates with Joe pesci shooting spider in the foot, is completely improvised, or at least the dialogue is.