Scorsese vs. Mailer: Boxing as Redemption in Raging Bull and An American Dream: Difference between revisions

Despite the pitfalls of biographical criticism, it's difficult to ignore the similarities between Romalozzo and La Motta or the fact that Mailer drew upon personal experience in this scene. Each of Mailer's biographers to date, {{sfn|Mills|1982|page=271}}, {{sfn|Manso|1985|page=374}}, {{sfn|Rollyson|1991|page=155}} recounts the story of how Mailer first met Beverly Bentley, who was to become his fourth wife and the prototype for Cherry in ''An American Dream''. Mailer and his friend Roger Donoghue, a world middleweight contender from 1946 to 1952 with whom Mailer frequently sparred, and who says "Tough writers ''can'' fight," {{sfn|Manso|1985|page=677}} were drinking at P.J. Clarke's on the East Side of Manhattan one spring night in 1963 when "a pretty blond actress, Beverly Bentley, walked in, accompanied by former middleweight boxing champion Jake La Motta". {{sfn|Mills|1982|page=271}} Donoghue, who knew Bentley, introduced her to Mailer. According to Donoghue,

Mailer, like his character Stephen Rojack, took the boxer's date home: according to Beverly," ••• I was attracted to the vulnerability beneath his tough act. He walked me to my apartment. That night he was wonderful in bed".{{sfn|Mills|1982|page=271}} The intervening events, in life unrecorded by any witness, are quite dramatic in the fictional scene in ''An American Dream''. Romeo, who "had a very bad reputation in the ring" {{sfn|Mailer|1966|page=93}} tells Cherry, "They're going to make a movie of my life" {{sfn|Mailer|1966|page=101}} The projected movie is described by Romeo in terms of clichés: "Story of a kid who goes bad, turns straight, goes bad again. • • • It's the fault of the company he keeps. Bad influences. Cheap whiskey. Broads".{{sfn|Mailer|1966|page=101}} He concludes, "If they get a good enough actor to play my part they are going to make a very good movie".{{sfn|Mailer|1966|page=101}}