The Anti-Rocky.

Rating: 8/10 (13 November 2019)

Though I prefer Scorsese and Schrader's other collaborations such as The Last Temptation of Christ, and especially Taxi Driver. Raging Bull proves itself to be a contender among their other masterworks, it's certainly flawed, and not my favorite of Scorsese's line up. But the central performances alongside the masterful direction from Scorsese proves that this film isn't just another boxing film.
The film's development history is almost as interesting as the film itself, with many problems befalling the set such as Martin's drug use which almost caused his death, him stubbornly refusing to direct a sports film, as, to be fair, he wasn't, and still isn't, all that interested in sports, as well as other problems that I can't remember from the top of my head. But once Scorsese read the story of Jake LaMotta, he described it as having a profound effect on him and thus, he finally decided to take on the film. Scorsese's passion and vigor drives the film, as well as the passion of all of the other crew on board, especially Scorsese's frequent collaborator, star of the film, and close friend Robert De Niro.
The character of Jake LaMotta, played excellently by De Niro, is an endlessly complicated one, like many of Scorsese's other protagonists. Though I don't think he quite adds up to De Niro's best character Travis Bickle, the physical transformation of De Niro into LaMotta is one of the most impressive in all of cinema, ranking up there with Heath Ledger's Joker, Daniel Day Lewis' Daniel Plainview, and Jack Nicholson's Jimmy Hoffa, though very much like Nicholson's portrayal of Hoffa, De Niro has an uncanny resemblance to the boxer already to the point where it's almost indistinguishable to tell the two apart. Much like Goodfellas' Henry Hill, LaMotta is not easy to like, in fact he's pretty deplorable throughout the film and Scorsese, as usual, isn't afraid to make us hate him at points. But there's that confidence and gusto that he has that always keeps us coming back to him, even in our constant frustration at his paranoia and tendency to drive people away from him and the fact that he's never fully able to take responsibility for his actions.
There's also many other laudable aspects of this film, such as its black and white filtering which gives the film a gritty, neo-noir look that I adore, as well as saying that Joe Pesci might give his best performance that I've ever seen him do. I have an issue with Pesci where, let's face it, he plays the same character in every damn movie that he's in, though in this, I was pleasantly surprised to see a much more restrained, subdued performance from Pesci, who usually plays the street wise loud mouth. He's still a relatively tough guy and foul mouthed, but portrays Jake's brother, who's the calmer, more restrained one of the duo, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that Pesci could play someone else who wasn't the street wise loud mouth, though I do enjoy some of those performances from him, it proves to me that Pesci actually has range as an actor, even if he doesn't show it as often as he could.
Unfortunately, the faltering of the movie is in the other, rather mediocre performances, especially of Cathy Moriarty as LaMotta's second wife Vicki, though I don't know if I can really fault the actors too much for that, as the performances from Pesci and De Niro are so magnificent, which I've also seen to be a problem in some of Scorsese's other films, mainly this one and The King of New York, but that's an entirely different conversation. There's also aspects of the pacing that truly bothered me, it felt rushed to me at times and I've always known Scorsese as a director who often takes his time when it comes to pacing, and one who often knows what he's doing when it comes to pacing, but, like with most good films, the good outweighs the bad.
Many have lauded Raging Bull as one of Scorsese's seminal works, while I don't know if I can give Raging Bull that. But Scorsese continues to amaze me with his versatility and I can say, with good conscience, that this one is a good Scorsese piece.