How Martin Scorsese’s Lowest Point Sparked ‘Raging Bull’

Martin Scorsese’s career took a sharp turn after the release of Taxi Driver, which had earned him the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Yet, when his next project, New York, New York, arrived in cinemas, the reception was far from what he’d hoped. Critics who had previously championed his work now offered only faint praise, leaving Scorsese questioning where things had gone awry. The unexpected disappointment left him wondering if his time in the spotlight was over, and he found himself at a crossroads, unsure of what the future might hold.

Rather than brushing off the setback, Scorsese found himself slipping into a period marked by personal turmoil. The combination of the film’s underwhelming performance and the collapse of his brief marriage to Julia Cameron left him feeling adrift. He turned to cocaine, seeking solace in the haze it provided, but the relief was fleeting. The sense of failure weighed heavily, and he struggled to find a way forward.

From Despair to Creative Revival

It was during this bleak chapter that Robert De Niro, a long-time collaborator, offered a lifeline. De Niro suggested Scorsese read Jake LaMotta’s autobiography, planting the seed for what would become Raging Bull. Immersing himself in the project, Scorsese began to channel his own struggles into the story of a self-destructive boxer, using the process as a form of self-examination and, ultimately, recovery.

Reflecting on this period in Martin Scorsese: A Journey by Mary Pat Kelly, the director described the emotional toll it took:

The motives for making a movie are very important—why you make a picture, why you go through the process. It’s a terrible journey each time you do it; it’s really a hard thing to do. And you have to have clear motives, and they have to be good motives. Between New York, New York and Raging Bull, in my personal life and also in my career, I was very disappointed.

He also noted that, despite the harsh criticism, he still saw value in his work:

And I said, ‘Wait a second. This picture is not dreadful. I mean, there are some problems with it, but…’ I became very disillusioned with the whole process. Everything was very destructive, and it was very bad for me.

Channelling Pain into Art

Determined not to let one misstep define him, Scorsese resolved to pour his experiences into a new project. Rather than focusing on a filmmaker in crisis, he chose to explore the life of a boxer whose self-destructive tendencies mirrored his own. As he put it,

In the fall of 1978, everything clicked together, and I kind of woke up and said, ‘This is the picture that has to be made, and I’ll make it that way. These are the reasons why it has to be made, for me anyway’.

The film became a vehicle for him to examine the consequences of self-destruction, both for the individual and those around them, and to consider the possibility of finding peace after chaos.

Raging Bull would go on to receive critical acclaim, earning two Academy Awards—one for Robert De Niro and another for editor Thelma Schoonmaker. Scorsese himself was nominated for Best Director, a testament to the creative resurgence that followed his darkest days.