In 'Raging Bull', Hershey's chocolate was used for blood; here's other interesting trivia

Raging Bull is a 1980’s sports drama helmed by Martin Scorsese. The movie explores the life of Jake LaMotta, a middleweight who rises quickly to success but is brought down by jealousy, rage and paranoia. The film stars Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci in lead roles. De Niro won an Oscar for the best actor due to this film. Scorsese also used black and white photography to bring back the 1940-50s period in which the film is set. Did you know that De Niro took up extreme physical training for this movie? Read about its other interesting facts and trivia. 

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• In 1978, Martin Scorsese hit an extreme low due to cocaine addiction. Robert De Niro visited him at the hospital and told him that he had to clean himself up and make this movie about a boxer. 
• In preparation for his role, Robert De Niro took up extreme physical training. He also took part in three Brooklyn boxing matches and won two of them.
• Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci were actually punching each other in the popular "hit me" scene.
• Hershey's chocolate was used for blood in the film. This was done so that blood could show up better in a black and white film. 

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• This movie is different from other boxing movies like Rocky (1976) and Body and Soul (1981) in that the camera was inside the ring for the fight scenes, not outside the ropes.
• Most of the fight scenes were shot through an intense light beam to obtain a mirage within the image
• The boxing scenes amount to only ten minutes of the film's run time.
• The rooftop wedding scene was directed by Martin Scorsese's father Charles Scorsese. 
• Martin Scorsese asked Jake LaMotta to go on stage.
• This film was voted as the 5th Greatest film of all time by Entertainment Weekly
• The F word is used one hundred fourteen times in this film

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