Arturo Serrano Alvarez

Para el resto del mundo, Uslar Pietri es uno de los más importantes escritores latinoamericanos; para los venezolanos es mucho más: escritor, político, notable, comunicador, periodista, y ya en sus últimos años, la conciencia de Venezuela. Cada vez que algo ocurría en este país, esperábamos los venezolanos ávidamente los comentarios de Uslar al respecto; esperábamos que nos diera luz para saber qué pensar al respecto y su palabra muy pocas veces era puesta en duda. Gracias a esto fue llamado por Luis Castro Leiva el "Protágoras tropical".

Of all the characters that undertake a search for redemption in Martin Scorsese’s films, perhaps it is the story of Jake La Motta in Raging Bull that for many reasons presents the greatest challenge to understanding redemption’s role in the narratives of his films. Is Jake La Motta a redeemed character at the end of Raging Bull? I argue that Scorsese uses Raging Bull to criticize a ritualistic view of redemption by portraying the beginning of Jake’s search as a futile attempt to submit himself to a public spectacle of ritual violence in the boxing ring while visually relating this to the Catholic sacraments and the crucifixion. It will only be later—in the loneliness of a jail cell, estranged from his family and without having to have had gone through a rite—that Jake achieves the self-awareness redemption requires.