Significado da citação bíblica no final do Touro Indomável?

A citação tanto relaciona como, até o final do filme, Jake LaMotta encontrou sua própria paz; e como uma homenagem ao professor de cinema de Martin Scorsese, Haig P. Manoogian.

A revisão do Filmsite do Raging Bull diz:

The final title commemorates Jake's "once I was blind and now I can see" salvation and new understanding:

Final Title:
So, for the second time, [the Pharisees]
summoned the man who had been blind and said:
"Speak the truth before God.
We know this fellow is a sinner."
"Whether or not he is a sinner, I do not know,"
the man replied.
"All I know is this:
once I was blind and now I can see."
John IX. 24-26
the New English Bible

Remembering Haig P. Manoogian, teacher.
May 23, 1916 - May 26, 1980.
With Love and resolution, Marty.

Remembering Haig P. Manoogian, teacher. May 23, 1916 - May 26, 1980. With Love and resolution, Marty.

[Director Martin Scorsese's dedication to his NYU film teacher.]

Film Reference diz:

Martin Scorsese's telling of the story of Jake La Motta has given rise to a number of different, often conflicting, readings. For Scorsese himself, La Motta's trajectory from promising boxer to middleweight champion of the world to night-club performer is the story of "a guy attaining something and losing everything, and then redeeming himself." Such a reading is clearly reinforced by the quotation from St. John's gospel preceding the final credits, which tells of a man whose sight has been restored by Christ rebuking the Pharisees: "Whether or not he is a sinner, I do not know," the man replied. "All I know is this: once I was blind and now I can see." On this level, La Motta's life becomes a kind of spiritual odyssey of the kind encountered before in the work of Schrader and Scorsese, both separately and in collaboration one with another. As Scorsese describes La Motta: "He works on an almost primitive level, almost an animal level. And therefore he must think in a different way, he must be aware of certain things spiritually that we aren't, because our minds are too cluttered with intellectual ideas, and too much emotionalism. And because he's on that animalistic level, he may be closer to pure spirit."

No entanto, não foi como o script terminou originalmente. De Les Keyser Martin Scorsese (editores de Twayne: New York, 1992), páginas 121-122:

The title cards with which Scorsese chooses to end Raging Bull suggest that he did not feel equivocal about La Motta's salvation. The original script ended with images of Jake shadowboxing, a description of Jake as "still alive, still a condender, a forty-two year old man fighting for a shot," and a citation from St. John's Gospel, chapter 3, beginning with verse 3: "Verily, verily I saw unto thee except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." By the time Raging Bull was completed, Scorsese decided to change the citation to later lines in St. John's Gospel, chapter 9, beginning with verse 24: "So, for the second time, the Pharisees summoned the man who had been blind and said: 'Speak the truth before God, We know this fellow is a sinner.' Whether or not he is a sinner, I do not know,' the man replied. 'All I know is this: once I was blind and now I can see'."

Scorsese was totally responsible for the new text. His collaborator [screenwriter] Paul Schrader maintains that it does not fit the film: "I had no idea it was going to be there, and when I saw it I was absolutely baffled. I don't think it's true of La Motta either in real life or in the movie; I think he's the same dumb lug at the end as at the beginning, and I think Marty is just imposing salvation on his subject by fiat. I've never really got from him a terribly credible reason for why he did it; he just seemed to feel that it was right" (Schrader 1990, 133).

In this new "now I can see" citation, Scorsese was commemorating Jakes' new understanding and peace, but as his title card went on to note, he was also "Remembering Haig P. Manoogian, teacher, May 23, 1916-May 26, 1980, with love and resolution, Marty." Those who knew Manoogian would recall that he challenged all his New York University students to see and linked the idea of seeing with the essence of art and religion. As a headnote, for example, to his text The Filmmaker's Art, Scorsese's mentor had cited the Victorian critic John Ruskin: "The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and tell what it saw in a plan way. Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think but thousands can think for one who can see. To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion, all in one" (Manoogian, vii). Scorsese found poetry, prophecy, and religion in La Motta's life and struggled in Raging Bull to make audiences share his vision.

    

Direto de outro site adicionado aqui para ser completo ...

Esta citação foi uma referência ao professor de cinema de Martin Scorsese, Haig Manoogian, a quem o filme foi dedicado. O homem morreu pouco antes do filme ser lançado. Scorsese credita Manoogian a ajudá-lo a "ver",

    

Acho que a citação tem a intenção de nos lembrar que as pessoas não devem se atolar acusando os outros de pecado e, ao invés disso, devem celebrar a alegria e os milagres de nossas vidas. Os fariseus querem que o homem anteriormente cego se junte a eles acusando o sujeito de pecado, mas o homem cego diz essencialmente a eles que ele não se importa se o homem é pecador ou não; Em vez disso, ele é grato que sua visão foi restaurada milagrosamente, e é nisso que ele passa seu tempo pensando e celebrando.

Portanto, no contexto de "Touro Indomável", não acho que a citação pretenda mostrar que Jake aprendeu alguma coisa ou evoluiu para algum tipo de herói bíblico. Em vez disso, a citação nos lembra que quaisquer que sejam os erros ou pecados que Jake cometeu em sua vida - e no filme, com certeza existem muitos deles - não é nosso trabalho como seres humanos julgá-lo ou acusá-lo de ser um homem mau, pecador. Em vez disso, devemos nos concentrar nos aspectos positivos de nossas vidas - e na vida de Jake - e celebrar a alegria que vemos. Apesar de Jake ter seus contratempos, ele é um sobrevivente, ele continua a fazer o seu caminho na vida, e em algum nível, isso é algo a ser comemorado.

Talvez outra razão pela qual a citação ressoa com Scorcese é que a frase "uma vez eu era cego e agora eu posso ver" pode ter um significado especial para um homem cuja principal busca na vida é criar arte através do cinema - um meio visual que baseia-se no que se "vê". O fato de dedicar essa citação a Manoogian, seu ex-professor de cinema da NYU, implica que Manoogian desempenhou um papel fundamental ao ajudar Scorcese a desenvolver as habilidades que ele usou como diretor, ie. ele ajudou Scorcese a "ver". Assim, a citação funciona em dois níveis: como um comentário sobre o que acabamos de testemunhar da vida de Jake e como a lembrança de Scorcese de um professor que o inspirou.