Raging Bull Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jake LaMotta

"Raging Bull" (1980) follows the boxing career of Jake LaMotta from 1941 to 1951. LaMotta fought Sugar Ray Robinson six times during his career, and several of those fights are shown in the film. LaMotta was World Middleweight Champion from 1949 to 1951. The last 20 minutes of the film details his post-fighting years.
"Sugar Ray" Robinson is often described as the greatest boxer of all time. He defeated LaMotta to win the Middleweight title in 1951, and was the first boxer to win a divisional championship five times. Robinson had a professional record of 128-1-2, and a 91 fight winning streak. His sole loss was to LaMotta in February 1943.
Marciano was the world heavyweight champion from 1952 to 1956. There were bio-pics about Marciano made in 1979 and 1999.
Graziano was briefly middle-weight champion in the 1940s, and is regarded as one of the best knockout punchers of all time. Paul Newman played Graziano in the 1956 film "Somebody Up There Likes Me".

Answer: Swimming pool

Vickie is at Shorehaven pool in the Bronx. She is first seen with Salvy Batts (Frank Vincent) while Jake and Joey discuss her. Jake later sees her at a dance at Webster Hall. Their first date is at a miniature golf course.
The real Vikki married Jake in 1945, and they divorced in 1957.

Answer: Tony Janiro

The Janiro fight is the first one after the montage, and is one of the most brutal scenes in the film, with LaMotta pummeling Janiro into a bloody mess. "He ain't pretty no more," comments Tommy Como (Nicholas Colasanto).
LaMotta had to get down a weight of 155 pounds or forfeit $15,000 when he fought Janiro, and he did get down to 154.5 pounds, the lightest fighting weight of his career. Kochan and Satterfield are two of the fights mentioned during the montage.

Answer: Billy Fox

Billy Fox won on a Technical Knockout during the fourth round in a fight at Madison Square Garden in November 1947. The film establishes that LaMotta threw the fight so that the mobsters who controlled boxing in the 1940s would give a shot at the Middleweight title. Scorsese goes out of his way to indicate that LaMotta threw the fight.

In 1960, LaMotta actually testified before Congress that he had thrown the fight. WBA Light Heavyweight champion Eddue Mustafa Muhammad played Fox in the film. LaMotta fought Tommy Bell several times, and won each of those fights.

He also fought Fritzie Zivic several times.

Answer: Thought he was cheating with Vickie

Jake's jealousy is one of the central themes of "Raging Bull". There are several scenes where Jake confronts Vickie about cheating with other men, and an amazing scene where Jake confronts Joey about sleeping with Vickie. Jake's constant jealousy was one of the reasons he and Vickie divorced in real life.

Answer: got me down

"You never got me down, Ray. You never got me down," is said by LaMotta at the end of his sixth and final fight with Sugar Ray Robinson, in which LaMotta loses the title. The facts bear out the film, as while Robinson did give LaMotta a tremendous pounding, the Raging Bull never fell down.

Answer: Corrupting a minor

Jake LaMotta ran a nightclub in Miami when he retired from boxing, and was somewhat lax about checking identification - especially for pretty girls, who Jake would prostitute out to his customers. As the film explains, one of the girls was 14, getting Jake into a great deal of trouble.

The real LaMotta was convicted of two counts of promoting prostitution and spent six months on a Florida chain gang.

Answer: On The Waterfront

LaMotta quotes from the "I could have been a contender" scene from "On the Waterfront" (1954). The film received 12 nominations, and won eight Oscars, including Best Picture. The screenplay by Budd Schulberg also won an Academy Award. LaMotta often quoted from Hollywood films and even Shakespeare during his public performances.
When he was making "Raging Bull", Scorcese initially thought about using a scene from "Richard III" for the final scene. He decided that something American was more in keeping with the film's overall tone. Scorsese deliberately had DeNiro read the "contender" scene in a very flat manner, to emphasize the decline of LaMotta.
"From Here to Eternity" (1953) was nominated for 13 Academy Awards and won eight, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress. There is a major subplot regarding boxing in the film.
"Somebody Up There Likes Me" (1956), a bio-picture about boxer Rocky Graziano did win Oscars for Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction.
"Body and Soul" (1947) features John Garfield as boxer Charley Davis. The film won an Oscar for Best Film Editing, and Garfield was nominated for Best Actor.

Answer: Marcel Cerdan

Jake beats Marcel Cerdan, who was champion from September of 1948 to June of 1949. LaMotta hurts Cerdan in the first round of the fight, and he really can't put up much of a defense, although he does not give up until the tenth round. During the last year of his life, Cerdan was having an affair with legendary singer Edith Piaf. He died in a plane crash in October 1949, while on his way to visit Piaf in New York.
Cerdan had an impressive record of 113 wins and only 4 losses, with 66 knockouts during his career, which lasted from 1934 to 1949.
In the film, Cerdan is played by Louis Raftis.

Answer: Thelma Schoonmaker

Thelma Schoonmaker had worked with Scorcese on his very first film in 1967, and returned after a 13 year absence. She has worked on every Scorsese film since 1980, through "The Wolf of Wall Street" (2013). "Raging Bull" won two Academy Awards: one for Robert DeNiro and the other for Schoonmaker's editing.

She also won Academy Awards for her work on "The Aviator" (2004) and "The Departed" (2006). She received her first Academy Award nomination for editing "Woodstock" (1971), the legendary Rock documentary. Sidney Levin edited "Mean Streets" (1973), Tom Rolf, with Martin Shapiro, edited "Taxi Driver" (1976), and Marcia Lucas edited "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" (1974).