Page 52 - Introduction to Electronic Commerce and Social Commerce

Sport on Film • 41

all around. In Raging Bull, all the crowd sounds from the boxer’s perspective are
recorded in stereo. This helps to place the cinema audience in the ring and, in Chion’s

(1994: 151) terms, exploits the superfield to provide ‘a continuous and constant con-
sciousness of all the space surrounding the dramatic action’.
The use of heavy filtering and the slowing down of crowd sounds give the impres-

sion of silence in Raging Bull, but low modulation fluctuations are always present.

The filtering of the crowd sound is often used to clear an acoustic space for the
dramatic intervention of a new sound. Films before the 1970s suffered from a con-
tinuous noise accompaniment and a poor sound quality in the higher frequencies.
The standardisation of Dolby changed this. Unwanted tape hiss could be removed,
leaving room for crisp, clear audio. As Chion (1994: 149) observed, Dolby sound
‘vibrates, gushes, trembles, and cracks (think of the crackling of fl ashbulbs in Rag-
ing Bull )’. The sounds of fl ashbulbs in Raging Bull are always dramatic. They have
a chilling, mechanical quality and appear especially brutal when placed in a negative
situation such as a boxer taking a count. Occasionally they are heard when La Motta
is prowling around the ring after a successful attack on his opponent. Flashbulbs and
cameras are also synonymous with the intrusion of the media gaze into the life of a

sporting celebrity. The camera flashes are used to link public and private in the fi lm.
After his final defeat by Robinson, La Motta is shown being interviewed at home

with his wife and children as he announces his retirement. La Motta asks the photog-
rapher to take some pictures of his wife, children and himself. The resulting fl ashes
remind us of the brutal fights. Evoking the sound of metal on metal, they give the

impression of clashing swords, which brutally render the feeling of gloved punches
landing on bare skin.
In the scene depicting La Motta’s fi rst fight against Sugar Ray Robinson, the

ring is brightly lit and the space created by the camera angle is open and wide. The
camera shots are in sharp focus and the commentator’s voice is crisp and loud. La
Motta’s career is on the way up. The combination of signifying elements in the scene
renders La Motta’s experience as he emerges as a potential champion with a long

career in front of him. The sound of whistling, a signifier of crowd excitement, heard
by the boxer in the ring is slowed down, mirroring the use of slow motion in the visu-
als. At one point it evokes the sound of a factory hooter or a steam whistle, as if the
boxing match is like a day in the factory. Thom (1999: para. 4) discussed the use of

slow motion in film, noting that ‘Raging Bull and Taxi Driver contain some obvious,
and some very subtle uses of slow motion. Some of it is barely perceptible. But it
always seems to put us into a dream-space, and tells us that something odd, and not
very wholesome, is happening.’ In this case, the unwholesome happening is signifi ed
by La Motta circling around the ring waiting for the moment to charge in for the kill.
We are also aware of the voyeuristic, almost vulture-like qualities of the reporters all
around the ring, with their abrasive-sounding cameras and the clear sounds of the
punches and the grunts from La Motta as he lays into Robinson. Here, these sounds
reflect his boxing success. We hear them again in the last fight with Robinson.