Made with talent, dedication and charisma--attributes most of the characters on-screen lack...

Rating: 6/10 (25 July 2006)

It took four screenwriters to adapt boxing champion Jake La Motta's autobiography for the screen; however, this black-and-white portrait (with color inserts) from director Martin Scorsese is so full of mongrels and curs, and is so foul-mouthed and flagrantly unappealing, that after awhile I didn't care about La Motta or his family. The film has been beautifully-shot by cinematographer Michael Chapman, utilizing every visual and visceral trick in the cinema manual, and Robert De Niro deservedly won the Best Actor Oscar for his amazing, high-wire performance in the lead--even putting on the extra weight for Jake's latter-day scenes. But the movie is mired in sordidness, and Scorsese clearly relishes rubbing our faces in the dirty laundry. The filmmaker's artistry is undeniably vast, yet he fails to lift his picture up on an emotional level and, very soon, one feels like a boxer in the ring, being pummeled. Thelma Schoonmaker also won an Oscar for her editing, which is amazing in the boxing sequences but, later, when Jake is retired and tries his hand at being a lounge lizard, the scenes are allowed to drag on to an inevitable finish.