I’m not super excited about my job right now and I just watched Raging Bull.
That’s right; I finally filled a gaping hole in the repertoires of Scorsese films I have watched. If you haven’t seen it, the film stars Robert De Niro as a boxer who tears it up but whose passion and character cause him to drift away from significance. He goes through two marriages, gains weight, quits boxing, makes a mistake which lands him in jail and gives unfunny stand-up routines at unmentionable bars…And then the movie ends.
Don’t get me wrong – I enjoy this kind of unsettling realism. It makes me feel better about myself.
Did I mention that I’m not super excited about my job right now? I work in call center. I never thought I would be doing something like this. I was passionate about my job a few years ago. How did I end up working in a call center? Is my life and career going to become increasingly mediocre? Am I a has-been? What am I doing?
The only part of Raging bull that seemed cliché was the overly obvious allusion to Marlon Brando’s infamous “I could have been a contender” monologue which De Niro recites in the last few minutes of the film. C’mon Scorsese! I made that connection in the third act.
Or, maybe it’s just cliché because we all tend to evaluate our own lives through the lens of affecting films…like I just did.
