Scorsese knows he can fight, but he'd rather recite

Rating: 10/10 (18 June 2006)

Both the masterpiece of lead Robert de Niro and director Martin Scorsese, Raging Bull is a picture that thoroughly deserves its place in the pantheon of great films. Documenting the rise and fall of boxer Jake La Motta (De Niro) from the early 40's through till the early 60's, Scorsese has crafted visual poetry that at once presents an unflinching, brutal look at the sport and a compelling, intense character study of a man who was disliked by almost everybody.
Jake La Motta is shown in Raging Bull as exactly that  a foul, ugly, violent man who shows no respect for any of his opponents in the ring, and certainly very little for himself. When he marries the beautiful Vicki (Cathy Moriarty), whose surname we never learn, it's not long before Jake begins doubting her faithfulness. It starts at just a mention by Vicki that an upcoming opponent of his is young and good looking (La Motta opts to deal with his opponent's looks by brutally dismantling his face in the ring), and develops rapidly into an all-consuming jealousy and bottled up anger that erupts into a violent fury and rage. Jake's suspects are at first local mob members Salvy and Tommy, but he soon trusts no one, even accusing his own brother, Joey (Joe Pesci), of having an affair with his wife. Jake's frustrations manifest themselves in the ring, the only place he can express his emotions  when he's angry, he'll destroy the poor soul who comes up against him, but when in a state of depression, he'll allow himself to be beaten to a pulp as the only way he knows how to punish himself.
Much has already been said about De Niro's performance in Raging Bull, and I'll add no more here, except to state that it's certainly the best of his distinguished career and resonates with so much brutality, intensity, and eventual tragedy that it will surely go down as one of modern cinema's great achievements. Supporting turns by Pesci and Moriarty are equally impressive, Pesci's Joey exhibiting intelligence and the same capacity for violent outburst as Jake, albeit in a more composed manner, and Moriarty's Vicki in all her quiet and understated seductiveness.
Raging Bull is shot is sobering black-and-white, bar a montage of home video footage midway through the film. It's a stylistic choice that speaks of the brutality of violence in and out of the ring, and it's violence that Scorsese has no hesitation in showing in all honesty. Too often these days, biopics celebrate the achievements and milestones that the precedent reached, but Scorsese takes a different approach - the fights are often very short montages of video clips and still photos, always emphasizing the fact that the focal point of the picture is the study of the character, not the study of his accomplishments. In doing so, Martin Scorsese has created a unique biographical drama where behaviour becomes more fascinating than any plot, and that's entertainment. That's entertainment.