The Martin Scorsese movie Ray Winstone calls “a masterpiece”
When it comes to the London “geezer” character, none have personified the role as well as Ray Winstone. His typically gruff Cockney accent and his “hard man” attitude have led the Londoner to be one of the most acclaimed British actors of his generation, and he has gone on to work for some of the most significant directors of all time, including Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg.
Winstone’s big break came in 1979 with the film adaptation of Alan Clarke’s Scum, and the budding actor got the part, even though his character was written for a Scotsman because Clarke liked his attitude. Another of Winstone’s early roles, before the likes of Sexy Beast and Ripley’s Game, was in The Who’s film Quadrophenia, in which he played the ex-Army soldier Kevin.
Taking part in a feature for Rotten Tomatoes, Winstone once revealed his five favourite films, although he stopped short of giving them in any particular order. One of those films, though, seemed to get his highest praise, and he even went as far as to call it “a masterpiece”.
The film in question is Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull. Winstone said: “You’ve got Raging Bull for the reason that it’s a masterpiece of movie-making. I love it because, when you cut the boxing out, it’s about people. It’s beautifully shot.”
“The slow-motion stuff, the music, the characters, the acting, the direction,” he added. “It’s classic to me because I’ve been a boxer, and it emotionally touches me. The heart just got to me”. Clearly, it’s a film that Winstone cherishes and its sounds like he has watched it on several occasions.
Raging Bull saw Robert De Niro portray the middleweight boxer Jake LaMotta, a fighter whose self-destructive nature led to his success in the ring at the cost of his personal relationships. The film was adapted by Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin from LaMotta’s 1970 memoir Raging Bull: My Story.
Winstone also went on to explain about the first time he ever watched the movie. “I was sitting there with my mate watching that, and he’s a boxer and a champion boxer,” he said, “And we were both crying at the end of the movie — [laughs] which sounds ridiculous, but it got to us, you know?”
So there’s a softer side to Ray Winstone that we might not have known, and even though he selected some rather masculine choices for his five favourite films, we can see that even in such movies, there is ample room for emotional exploration and that’s the true genius of a master filmmaker like Scorsese.
