Why is it black and white?

The reason is that Scorcese found the special effects looking odd in color (something to do with the color of gloves, look it up on the FAQs) so he changed it to black and white so it would look natural. Also since there is blood in this movie, and the controversy behind Taxi Driver being to violent for its time which led to changing the color scheme in violent scenes to downplay its effect, Scorcesse decided he didn't want to go through that again so he made Raging Bull black and white.

As far as a deeper explanation as to why the story of Raging Bull needs to be black and white, there is none (the story of the movie has a lot of depth, which gets underplayed by the choice of black and white which to me signifies simplicity). It was basically done just to avoid the controversy of too much "color" blood (As long as the blood is black and white or discolored it is no longer controversial) and also for the ease of special effects.


Despite all this, I still give the movie a 10 on imdb, but I just think it would been better and more remembered by even casual audiences if this was shot in color like the way people remember Taxi Driver.

The reason it's in B & W is that the year Raging Bull was made all the color film was being used by other productions. There was only black & white film stock available, so Marty had no choice unless he wanted to delay production til more color stock was available. Don't worry, I'm sure when they remake this it will be in color.

SHUT THE *beep* UP DONNIE

According to Martin Scorsese on the DVD, when first screening some test 8mm footage of Robert De Niro sparring in a ring, he felt that something was off about the image. Michael Powell the british director, who at that time had become something of a mentor and good friend to Scorsese, suggested that it was the color of the gloves that was throwing them off. Realizing this was true, Scorsese then decided the movie had to be filmed in black and white.

Ninja gave a correct answer above, but there was another reason. This was a time when cinephiles were discovering that old color films were deteriorating. This got people thinking about color and black and white, and lead Scorsese to making an artistic choice.

I want to shake every limb in the Garden of Eden
and make every lover the love of my life

Here's an unintended good reason: De Niro is 10x sexier in black and white. Yeah. I've see color shots from the set, and they're just not as... nice.

This black and white being "artsy" chose is kind of too popular view, this is Scorsese movie, not art project of 16 year old girl. Don't read too much into it, its just something to do and it actually makes movie look lot better and it withstands time much better than color films from the same period of time. Making memories in black and white, that just over the top and stupid, this is not simpsons.

i think it was scorcese's vision. i dont know what his reason was, but perhaps it was the violent and dramatic changes in lamata's life. he tended to see things as either one thing or another. it adds a noir feel to the picture as well.

because black and white is friggin awesome