Raging Bull

1980 | 128 min. | Director: Martin Scorsese | TVMA
Martin Scorsese's brutal character study incisively portrays the true rise and fall and redemption of middleweight boxer Jake La Motta, a violent man in and out of the ring who thrives on his ability (and desire) to take a beating. Opening with the spectacle of the over-the-hill La Motta (Robert De Niro) practicing his 1960s night-club act, the film flashes back to 1940s New York, when Jake's career is on the rise. Despite pressure from the local mobsters, Jake trusts his brother Joey (Joe Pesci) to help him make it to a title bout against Sugar Ray Robinson the honest way; the Mob, however, will not cave in. Jake gets the title bout, and blonde teenage second wife Vickie (Cathy Moriarity), but success does nothing to exorcise his demons, even as he channels his rage into boxing. Alienating Vickie and Joey, and disastrously gaining weight, Jake has destroyed his personal and professional lives by the 1950s. After he hits bottom, however, Jake emerges with a gleam of self-awareness, as he sits rehearsing Marlon Brando's On the Waterfront speech in his dressing room mirror: "I coulda been a contender, I coulda been somebody." Working with a script adapted by Mardik Martin and Paul Schrader from La Motta's memoirs, Scorsese and De Niro sought to make an uncompromising portrait of an unlikable man and his ruthless profession. Eschewing uplifting Rocky-like boxing movie conventions, their Jake is relentlessly cruel and self-destructive; the only peace he can make is with himself. Michael Chapman's stark black-and-white photography creates a documentary/tabloid realism; the production famously shut down so that De Niro could gain 50-plus pounds. Raging Bull opened in late 1980 to raves for its artistry and revulsion for its protagonist; despite eight Oscar nominations, it underperformed at the box office, as audiences increasingly turned away from "difficult" films in the late '70s and early '80s. The Academy concurred, passing over Scorsese's work for Best Director and Picture in favor of Robert Redford and Ordinary People, although De Niro won a much-deserved Oscar, as did the film's editor, Thelma Schoonmaker. Oscar or no Oscar, Raging Bull has often been cited as the best American film of the 1980s.

shamoney

i loved it!!!! robert dinero is a phenomenal actor and this movie is no exception.

Nickdichario

Raging Bull is one of my favorite films, and I hadn't seen it in awhile, probably three or four years, anyway, so I took the opportunity to turn off my computer and dim the lights and get lost in it all over again, shutting out the world. Every time I see this film I'm amazed at how good it is. Every scene tight and perfect, the brilliant closeups, the pristine black and white, the documentary style storytelling mixed in with moments of pure emotional angst...it's Marty Scorsese at his finest. Di Niro and Pesci are just flat-out fantastic. Their performances will rip your heart out, especially Di Niro, whose uncontrollable rage can be seen in every movement, every expression on his face. The screenplay by Schrader and Mardik is out-of-this-world good, and the fact that it wasn't nominated for an award is evidence of how badly the award shows can miss sometimes. (For example, it lost Best Director and Best Picture to Robert Redford's Ordinary People, if you can believe that, when it shoudn't have even been a contest, frankly). Highly recommended!