SCRtl-NnThe Profundity of Crossness and Pretentiousness as ArtnRaging Bull; Based on the book bynJake La Motta; Directed by MartinnScorsese; United Artists.nHeaven’s Gate; Written and directednby Michael Cimino; United Artists.nby Eric ShapearonRaging Bull IS a display of somethingnvery special—it could be called a movienstyle of Italian-American verismo. Andnas style, in this case, is also substance,nthe effect is staggering. The routinennaturalism of up-to-date film-makingntranscends the portrayal of life at itsnworst, and goes a step further: it makesndelicate (a strange-sounding adjectivenin this cinematic surfeit of savagery)nsuggestions about human fate and itsnenigmas (which were never anticipatednin the scruffy railroad flats in the Bronxnanno 1940), about the interaction ofnheroism with brutality—all in all, anterritory where literary naturalists ofnour era rarely venture. How OrdinarynPeople, a shallow movie about allegedlyncomplex people, could win an Oscarnover this profound inquiry into the heartnof vulgarity, profanity and coarsenessncan only be explained by Hollywood’snhypocrisy and corruption.nOn his way into the depths of obtuseness,nMr. Scorsese discovers a multitudenof moving humanness and ethnicallynconditioned torments so intrinsicallynblended into the American contextnthat a minimonument to AmericannItalianness emerges, one that shouldnsomehow be enshrined on a float andncarried during the San Gennaro procession.nOn top of that, Scorsese statesnsome truths about boxing which horrifynbut do not repel, about the drabness ofnNew York that repels and allures at thensame time. The movie is quite a triumphnfor Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiron—perhaps the most exciting actor innAmerican dramatic arts today—whonstructures a stunning portrait of a modernnurban Caliban, lost without Prosperonin the jungle of the Americannsuccess ethic.nWhy have film-makers of Italian descentnbeen able to appropriate nearlynall the cinematic literacy in currentnmovie-making? Perhaps the most relevantnglory of Raging Bull is that itnbrings into sharp focus one of the mostninteresting occurrences in modernnAmerican culture. The movie oozesnwith Italo-American ethnicity but,ninstead of being parochialized by it, itnis transformed into an all-Americannallegory and, even further, becomesna universal message. Somehow all thatnItalo-American violence becomes anmetaphor for crude, warm, primitivenand extremely convincing humanism.nIt becomes a kind of justifiable violence.nIn contrast to the cold, contrived, vicious,npsychotic, utterly commercializednviolence of current Hollywoodn”creativeness,” the Italo-American violencenseems to originate in some elemental,nstrident emotionalism or easilynrecognizable and valid human impulsesn—pride, vengeance, search for callousndignity, sexual passions. Could it be thatnrefinement of these motivations andnfeelings by American movie dramaturgynnnmay prove to be the only hope fornAmerican culture.-‘nArt, to my mind, is an attempt to introducenlucidity into the maze of thingsnhuman. In order to be of worth, or atnleast credible, it must deal with thencomplexity of being and with somethingneven more elusive—namely, the authenticitynof truth.Thelast sounds like tautology,nbut it isn’t. Truth can be relative andnabstract, real and banal, and endeavorsnother than art can deal with truth accordingnto their needs. Only certainntruths serve art: strawberries withncream certainly taste better than streetnmud, but to make a movie about thisntruth seems rather superfluous. OncenMichael Cimino abandoned the pursuitnof authenticity in truth, he was doomednto wake up in a morass of pretentiousnessnof both content and form.nCimino’s The Deer Hunter was, innmy view, the best American movie ofnthe last twenty years, precisely becausenof its magnificent attempt to capturenthe authenticity of truth of an historicalnmoment, with all possible probing intonthe American man of that moment. Thenreverence for the complexity of such annundertaking was apparent in the gloriousnefforts in the script, directing,nacting. Human feelings and bonds wereninstitutionalized; the statement aboutnAmerican pluralism rang true; the commentnon American innocence was convincing.nWarm patriotism is the finalnvalue left to those who have beennstripped of humanness by the maelstromnof history—a simple but authentic inference.nAn artist never makes unequivocal,nblack-and-white judgments whennapproaching history and society—nCimino seems to have known this principlenin The Deer Hunter.nHe is completely oblivious to it innAinMay/June 1981n