Performance studies can offer film studies much. Seen from the perspective of this emerging field of studies, Raging Bull becomes an even more complex work. Answers to such questions as who is performing and what is being performed are far from simple. As the opening sequence suggests, Raging Bull makes the idea of performance a predominant theme. The film examines how masculinity is performed within the boxing arena and without. In so doing, it begs comparison with the great stage plays of the mid-twentieth century that also interrogate the performance of masculinity. As a biographical film of a performer, Raging Bull shows Robert De Niro performing as Jake La Motta performing as both a boxer and as a stand-up comedian. Incorporating Brando's famous speech from On the Waterfront (1954) near its end, Raging Bull adds further layers of performance: De Niro as Jake as Brando as Terry Malloy. Through allusion and homage, this closing scene has been re-performed numerous times since the film's release, and additional layers of complexity accumulate as Raging Bull gathers history.

BEGINNING BETWEEN DOING AND SEEMING

Raging Bull begins with a very specific circumstance of performance. In the opening title sequence, a boxer spars with the smokey air in an empty ring. Only vague movements are visible from those just outside the ropes; flashbulbs occasionally burst through the gloom.