Surprising After 25 Years

Rating: 10/10 (2 April 2005)

I avoided seeing this film until today. Despite the awards and almost uniformly good reviews, I was not attracted by the thought of a realistic boxing film, and so I never saw this film either in theatres, or on cable. I rented the DVD today and watched it, and I was mesmerized throughout. I understand this film came out during the year of Chariots of Fire. If that is true, then Scorsese was robbed, in my opinion. This film was even better than The Aviator.
I'm glad I was not aware how the film ends, and so I am calling this comment a spoiler. Jake sitting before a mirror rehearsing Brando's "contender" speech from On The Waterfront--it left me weak when I realized what was occurring. An actor playing a real boxer rehearsing a speech given in a film by an actor playing a fictional boxer. And both actors won Oscars for giving that speech. That scene was so simple, so unexpected, yet so true to the rest of the film.
There was not a dull moment in it, and unlike some of Scorsese's subsequent films, the film presented its story very economically, without unnecessary effects and unnecessary scenes.