Raging Bull
Raging Composer
This week's installment highlights one of those beautiful melds of film and music. Martin Scorcese's 1980 masterpiece Raging Bull is justifiably regarded as the best film of the 80's and now, almost three decades after its release, it remains a powerful film. One of its greatest legacies (at least for me) was introducing the music of Italian composer Pietro Mascagni to a wide audience. Even kids like me, who regarded opera as something the Viet Cong applied to John McCain to make him confess, were stunned by the juxtaposition of three excerpts of Mascagni's work (the Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana, the Barcarolle from Silvano and the Intermezzo from Guglielmo Ratcliff) with the stark brutality of the prizefighter's world.
The Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana is probably the better-known work from the film, but I have a real affection for the montage of fight stills and home movie clips in the middle of the film set to the Barcarolle from Silvano. Enjoy.
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