Raging Bull

But with, first, film noir in the 40s and 50s, then the end of the American century beginning with the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the scandal of Watergate, plus the rise of the counter-culture, heroes became more and more difficult to identify, or identify with. The 60s and 70s gave rise to the idea of the anti-hero, still the protagonist of the film, but someone who had a more ambivalent moral or legal code --- Dirty Harry, Jack Nicholson as Bobby Dupea in Five Easy Pieces, Nicholson again with Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper in Easy Rider. You weren’t rooting for them perhaps, but the fascination with their character, flaws and all, as well as the ambiguities of the storyline, focused your attention. But what if you determined to make a film about someone who was almost completely unlikable, who inspired fear rather than fascination, someone who seemed almost irredeemable? How do you situate such an individual in a story that doesn’t cause the audience to turn away or walk out? Moreover, why even make such a film? What would drive a filmmaker to these lengths?

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