Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Raging Bull" was released. Martin Scorsese asked his teaching assistant to give out movie tickets to everyone in class. "I'm sorry that I missed a lot of classes this year because of this movie. Please tell me what you think after you watch it."

In order to catch up with this year's Oscar selection and to get enough screening time required for the awards, "Raging Bull" was released in art theaters across the country in the last two weeks of 1980.

"Is it good?" Ronald asked Leon and Spike Lee, who had already watched it. The three students surnamed Lee hit it off and always sat together to discuss movies.

"An art classic. This may be the best movie of Scorsese and Bobby De Niro." Spike said.

"Yes, it tells the life of Italian-American boxing champion Jack LaMotta. The boxing scenes are very exciting and the camera scheduling is unparalleled. It may be the best boxing scene in history." When Leon talked about the movie, his spoken English improved a little and he spoke longer sentences.

"Oh?" Ronald raised his eyebrows. That can't be missed. "What you said makes me want to take my cousin to see it."

"That may not be suitable."

"Why? Because it's an R-rated movie?"

"Not only is the boxing scene a bit bloody, but it's also black and white, which children don't like."

Black and white? Ronald thought to himself, Scorsese is really good at playing.

"Ronald, this may really be my swan song. It will be difficult for me to make movies in Hollywood in the future. I plan to go to Italy with Isabella later. Some people in Europe like my movies. Maybe I can apply for government funding to make some art films."

Scorsese saw Ronald, who came to thank him, and felt emotional, and talked to him a few more words.

"I was writing the script for the last six weeks and haven't seen your work yet, Marty. Why are you so pessimistic? But I heard a lot of New York film critics swearing that your new film is good."

"United Artists didn't spend much money on marketing the film, Ronald. They are experiencing a change in the top management. President Andy Albeck was fired by the parent company and replaced by an accountant from the parent company Pan Am, who only knows how to do the accounts.

This time, Raging Bull can only be shown in 180 art theaters. If it doesn't win at the Oscars, the total box office will not be very good.

And there are rumors in the circle that Pan Am, the parent company of United Artists, intends to sell United Artists as a whole. The last major studio dominated by artists in Hollywood is about to... Hey."

"Why, because Heaven's Gate failed at the box office?

"The production cost of 44 million, the box office was less than 1 million after more than a month of release.

Pan Am has long been dissatisfied with the management of United Artists, especially the two films "Midnight Cowboy" and "Barry's Last Tango". Despite Pan Am's opposition, United Artists insisted on not cutting out controversial scenes and was rated X by PAA.

After that, Pan Am removed the Pan Am logo under the United Artists title and fired several executives who insisted on artistic principles. They went to set up a new company, Orion Pictures.

Although President Andy Albeck was ridiculed as a salesman, United Artists under his leadership had four films last year, Rocky 2, 007: Moonraker, Manhattan, and Black Stallion, all of which were box office successes. But who knew that Cimino could overspend so much on Heaven's Gate, which was originally budgeted at 6 million?

Pan Am had long given up the idea of ​​using United Artists for publicity. The failure of Heaven's Gate made them completely lose patience..."

"If Hollywood has taught me anything? It is that you have to keep making money to stay in this industry. I haven't made money for two consecutive movies, and it's hard to convince producers to invest in my movies. "Scorsese concluded.

"Ah, it's all caused by Heaven's Gate..." Ronald sighed.

After the release of the three-hour and forty-minute "Heaven's Gate", Vincent Canby, a senior film critic of the New York Times, compared it to "being forced to walk in circles in your living room for four hours", and even maliciously said that fat Michael Cimino sold his soul to the devil Mephisto in "The Deer Hunter", and now Mephisto is here to collect the debt.

Of course, Ronald didn't think the critics were right. Although Heaven's Gate was bad, The Deer Hunter was not so good and was not worth the evaluation of "selling one's soul in exchange".

"Yeah, you know? United Artists is going to withdraw the distribution of "Heaven's Gate" and re-edit it. "

"Ah? What's this operation?"

"Michael Cimino signed a letter in the newspaper, asking United Artists to let him withdraw the three-hour and forty-minute version, re-edit it into two and a half hours, and re-release it next year. "

"So United Artists agreed? "Ronald thought about it and felt that it was a bit stupid for United Artists to agree to withdraw the already released film. The new president might not be familiar with the film, which would only lead to more fierce criticism from film critics. "Look, we are right, the director has admitted his mistakes and wants to re-edit. Then they will pounce more fiercely. "

"What else? If you don't agree, Michael Cimino will have more reason to say that United Artists ruined his movie. After all, he is the winner of the Oscar for Best Director. "

Ronald thought of Martin Scorsese in front of him, who had not yet been nominated for the Oscar for Best Director. His "Taxi Driver" was widely acclaimed and won the Golden Globe Award and the Directors Guild's Best Director nomination, but did not win an Oscar nomination.

"But Cimino's movie is difficult to edit, right?" Ronald said.

Michael Cimino is the kind of director who is good at creating atmosphere. It is difficult to edit out the extra film in his films. It seems that no matter which part is cut out, it is wrong, and the long narrative can only be retained.

"This is where he is smart. Directors and artists in the film industry are always suppressed by producers and forced to shorten their films. Cimino took advantage of this. Now some people in the film industry are talking about whether the new president of United Artists forced Cimino to shorten the film by one third."

"It was obviously his own request. This fat guy is very cunning." Ronald thought to himself.

"I see you've also been nominated for Best Director at the Golden Globe Awards, Marty. Will you go to the awards ceremony?"

"I won't go. Bobby De Niro is pursuing the Best Actor award this awards season, and I don't have much chance. The financial situation of United Artists won't allow me to do anything at the awards season.

You know the tradition of the Golden Globe Awards. They like celebrities to be there. This year, Robert Redford, a big star, will be making his directorial debut. He will definitely go, so there's no need for me to go..."

"By the way, why did you say that, Ronald? Has your script been nominated, too?" Scorsese reacted and asked Ronald if he was also nominated.

"No, it's Best Original Song. I wrote the lyrics. I want to go and gain some knowledge." Ronald chuckled.

"Good luck, young man."

The next day, Ronald went to the cinema to watch "Raging Bull". Sure enough, this black-and-white film was shot very powerfully, and the use of black-and-white light and shadow was wonderful. Especially in the final boxing ring, Jack LaMotta's last match.

Scorsese used magic-like light and shadow to show the strength of the boxing champion's opponent very powerfully. When the opponent approaches, the light and shadow suddenly cover up, giving people a great sense of oppression. The audience seems to be in the boxing ring, facing the muscular black boxer.

This scene also fully expresses the feeling of the hero Jack LaMotta, the outdated boxing champion, in his twilight years.

The whole movie is in black and white, except for the images shot by Jack LaMotta himself with a home camera, which are in color. This part of family warmth has a very documentary texture.

Contrary to the usual treatment, the narrative part of this movie is in black and white, while the "pseudo-documentary" style video clips are in color.

Ronald doesn't know why Scorsese treated it this way. Maybe it's because Scorsese wants to make a classic black and white movie like old Hollywood?

The photography level of this movie is not inferior to those classic old Hollywood movies. Ronald himself is a photographer and knows that black and white photography and color photography can almost be regarded as two arts. Black and white photography only has one variable, grayscale, and relies entirely on light and shadow to create image effects and convey emotions to the audience.

Among directors of this generation, only Scorsese and Peter Bogdanovich, who was involved in the murder of female model Stratten some time ago, are good at directing black-and-white films.

Coincidentally, these two are also loyal fans of old Hollywood films. Scorsese teaches classic film appreciation at New York University, and Bogdanovich also interviewed a series of old Hollywood directors and published books to earn a lot of royalties.

Only fans will make black-and-white films, which is a lost art in Hollywood.

While the entertainment media praised Raging Bull, they also kept attacking Heaven's Gate.

Ronald turned on the TV and watched the entertainment news. There were interviews with passers-by on it.

"The music is good, the photography is first-rate, but the story is terrible."

"I don't understand what the director is telling the story, it's a terrible movie."

"I think the movie needs to be edited properly, to be honest."

Finally, a beautiful woman was interviewed, "I think the movie is too long and too boring. I think I almost fell asleep halfway through it."

"See, it has nothing to do with me, it's just that Cimino's filming is too bad, and people also dozed off." Ronald saw this and shouted at Donna and Diane Lane.

The two little girls giggled and fell on the sofa. They had heard about the origin of the nickname "Sleepy Ronald", which was because they watched Michael Cimino's movies and yawned during interviews.

"Raging Bull, this weekend's box office was 649,000, ranking fourth, with an average box office of 3,600 US dollars per theater, and the total box office so far is 1.51 million..."

"Hey, are TV stations now broadcasting the box office rankings of movies?" Ronald found two newspapers, The Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety, from the table. Sure enough, the newspapers also opened columns, listing the weekly box office and total box office of the movies.

"Is this putting the directors in the boxing ring and letting them fight each other?" Ronald didn't like this method.

"I think it's great. Film critics always don't tell the truth. I still look at the box office figures before deciding which movie to watch. This way I won't be easily deceived." Aunt Karen said. She was tidying up the living room. New Year's Day was coming soon.

The film review columns in the New York media all gave Marty "Raging Bull" a high evaluation. Ronald browsed through several newspapers.

The New York Film Critics Circle Awards gave a high evaluation to Raging Bull, which is a weather vane for the Oscars.

The New York Film Critics Circle Film Awards, which will be announced soon, Martin Scorsese was nominated for Best Director, Robert De Niro was nominated for Best Actor, and Joe Percy was nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

These awards from the film critics circle, as well as the Directors Guild Award and the Screen Actors Guild Award, will be awarded from now until the Oscar nominations are announced.

The judges of these awards are highly overlapped with the judges of the Oscars, so they are very much like a weather vane. It seems that "Raging Bull" has a good chance of being nominated for an Oscar, or even winning.

Moreover, Scorsese and the two actors are of Italian descent, and Italians are very influential in the film industry now. Thanks to Francis Coppola's Godfather Parts 1 and 2, the movies reflecting the lives of Italians are selling well, and the influence of Italians in the film industry is also growing.