* CareerResurrection: Creator/MartinScorsese was amidst a CreatorBreakdown (see below) following the tepid response to ''Film/NewYorkNewYork'' in 1977. After almost dying of an overdose, he was persuaded by Creator/RobertDeNiro to direct this film as a favor for both of them. Convinced that he might not work in Hollywood again in light of his problems, Scorsese poured all of his energy into filming this project. Instead, its critical acclaim, plus eventual recognition as one of the best films of TheEighties and in Scorsese's oeuvre, helped revive his career and his personal well-being.
* CreatorBacklash: Screenwriter Creator/PaulSchrader isn't as creatively satisfied with this film as he is with ''Film/TaxiDriver'' and ''Film/TheLastTemptationOfChrist'' (among his collaborations with Creator/MartinScorsese). He personally feels that the film's attempt to put on a RedemptionQuest at the end was unconvincing and it gave [=LaMotta=] too much credit as a boxer and sportsman, taking a lot of great talent and hard work to make someone more famous than he merits.
* CreatorBreakdown: Creator/MartinScorsese was struggling with a cocaine addiction at the time and was intending on retiring as a director. Creator/RobertDeNiro specifically brought the project to Scorsese in hopes that its themes of self-destruction would help him overcome his problems.
* TheDanza:
** Creator/JoePesci as Joey [=LaMotta=], though the shared names were just a coincidence.
** Charlie Scorsese (Martin's dad) as Charlie, the balding bespectacled mobster who shows up in a few scenes.
* DarkhorseCasting: Creator/RobertDeNiro helped Creator/MartinScorsese track down unfamiliar names to play Joey and Vikki.
** [=De Niro=] cast Creator/JoePesci after seeing him in a low-budget television thriller ''The Death Collector''. For one thing, Pesci had a remarkable resemblance to the real Joey. Prior to being cast, Pesci had not worked in film for four years and was running an Italian restaurant in New Jersey. Creator/FrankVincent, who'd been part of a nightclub comedy team with Pesci, was also in ''The Death Collector'' and got cast as Salvy.
** Pesci suggested Cathy Moriarty from a picture he once saw at a New Jersey disco. The fact that she looked a lot like Vikki [=LaMotta=] was a major consideration (for proof, see [[https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/american-actress-cathy-moriarty-pictured-with-vikki-lamotta-news-photo/518491553 this pic of Moriarty and [=LaMotta=] together around the time of the film's release]]). She was working as a waitress when she got cast, and it was her first film.
* DawsonCasting:
** Creator/CathyMoriarty playing a fifteen year old version of her character at the beginning (she was 20). Somewhat justified, as she portrays the character from her teens until her late 20's.
** There's also the fact that Creator/RobertDeNiro was 36 or 37 at the time of filming, and in the early scenes played a 19-year-old Jake [=LaMotta=].
* DoingItForTheArt: For Creator/RobertDeNiro and Creator/MartinScorsese. It took over four years for De Niro to convince everyone, including Scorsese, to get on board for this film. The final draft of the screenplay, after Mardik Martin and Schrader finished most of the early work, was in fact written by an uncredited Scorsese and [=DeNiro=].
* DuelingMovies: With ''Film/TheElephantMan'', another DeliberatelyMonochrome biopic involving special physical performance from the lead actor. Both films also competed in Best Actor nomination.
* DyeingForYourArt:
** Creator/RobertDeNiro trained with the real Jake [=LaMotta=] to get in shape. They spent the entire shoot together so De Niro could portray his character accurately. La Motta said that De Niro has the ability to be a contender, and that he would have been happy to be his manager and trainer.
** Even more remarkable is that for the Older FormerlyFit Jake, rather than put on a fat-suit and resort to camera-tricks, [=DeNiro=] insisted ''that he put on 60 pounds'' to shoot the Epilogue (a mere third of the film). To accommodate this, the film's production had to be divided into two sections divided by an interval of a few months while [=DeNiro=] put on weight. He achieved it by travelling to Europe and eating out in restaurants. After filming ended, [=DeNiro=] exercised and lost the weight he had gained, proving if nothing else, [[TheDeterminator his remarkable personal discipline]].
* EnforcedMethodActing:
** Creator/JoePesci never knew the script called for him to be attacked, so the scene where Creator/RobertDeNiro beats him up at dinner came ''completely'' out of nowhere.
** Creator/MartinScorsese didn't think that Pesci's reaction was strong enough, so he asked De Niro to say "Did you fuck your mother?".
* InMemoriam: The film is dedicated to Creator/MartinScorsese's New York University film professor, Haig P. Manoogian.
* OnSetInjury: Creator/RobertDeNiro accidentally broke Creator/JoePesci's rib while assaulting him.
* PlayingAgainstType: Joey [=LaMotta=] is played by Creator/JoePesci. Yes, ''[[HairTriggerTemper that]]'' Joe Pesci. Of course, it was before he was typecast. Pesci still manages to start a fight by breaking a glass over someone's head, and ending it by slamming their head and shoulders repeatedly in a car door. He does apologize after, but only at the insistence of an old mobster. It still counts, because compared to Creator/RobertDeNiro, he's really the collected one. It's Jake that has the HairTriggerTemper.
* ProductionPosse: Scorsese's old NYU film school friend Mardik Martin wrote the first draft of the screenplay, and his frequent collaborator Creator/PaulSchrader did the later drafts. His longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker was also on board. This was the first Creator/RobertDeNiro[=/=]Creator/JoePesci film, and the future Scorsese/De Niro/Pesci films also all featured Frank Vincent (Salvy) in a supporting role up until ''Film/TheIrishman'' (Vincent died shortly before it started filming).
* RealLifeRelative: Creator/MartinScorsese's father is one of the mob wiseguys crowding the [=LaMotta=] brothers at a Copa nightclub table.
* SerendipityWritesThePlot: Creator/MartinScorsese stated in a contemporary interview that part of the reason why the film was mostly shot in black and white was because of the publicizing of dye degradation in old Eastmancolor positives that turned the pictures unnaturally pink (due to the yellow and cyan dyes fading out; negatives also had fading problems but to a much smaller and more easily fixable degree). Thus, shooting in black and white would allow the film to be easier to preserve decades later; the home movie sections ''were'' shot in color, but with the more indefatigable reversal stock that was common for home movies at the time (reversal stock would later become standard in the industry following backlash against the Eastmancolor fading issue).
* StarMakingRole: For Creator/JoePesci.
* ThoseTwoActors: This was the first of six films that Creator/RobertDeNiro and Creator/JoePesci made together.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** Creator/BeverlyDAngelo, Creator/MichellePfeiffer and Creator/SharonStone auditioned for Vikki [=LaMotta=]. Creator/JodieFoster also wanted the role, but she didn't get to audition, as the producers thought she was too young and tomboyish.
** When Creator/PaulSchrader was working on the script, he put in numerous shocking moments such as Jake [=LaMotta=] masturbating and dipping his penis into a bucket of ice. Schrader later admitted that the film held less personal significance to him than it did for Creator/RobertDeNiro and Creator/MartinScorsese and he added the shocking material just to see what he could get past the studio. Ultimately, the masturbation was cut and, instead of putting his penis into the ice, La Motta pours the ice down his underwear.
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