Not Scorsese's best

Rating: 6/10 (2 July 2014)

Don't get me wrong: RAGING BULL is a strong movie, featuring some great technical expertise and top-notch direction from the reliable Martin Scorsese. It also happens to feature a pair of excellent performances from Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci. But something in the film leaves you cold, cold enough for me to place this far behind the likes of TAXI DRIVER, GOODFELLAS and CASINO.
The problem with the film is the script, I think, which fails to make much headway with Jake LaMotta's character. Yes, the film is all about a portrayal of a man who turns out to be a monster, but there's not much of a character arc. LaMotta stays the same from beginning to end, but the film as a whole lacks the grandiose nature of something like SCARFACE, which told a similar story but in a much more dramatic and cinematic way. In contrast, RAGING BULL is cold and a bit depressing.
There's still much to like here, though, and inevitably De Niro's performance stands head and shoulders above all else. De Niro undertakes a dramatic physical transformation for the role years before Christian Bale made it trendy to do so, and he's absolutely electric. But, again, he's played characters that are much more interesting in other films. I just didn't think much about LaMotta despite the interest of the warts 'n' all scripting. Trust Scorsese to get another fine performance from Pesci, though, the first of three stunning acting performances from the actor/director combo.
On a final note, RAGING BULL comes recommended thanks to THOSE fight scenes. In contrast to the rough 'n' tough bouts of the ROCKY franchise, these are extremely violent and yet also extremely artistic; probably the best filmed of all sports sequences in a movie. I just wish that Scorsese hadn't gone for black-and-white, though, as I think the movie would have been more effective in colour so you could see every drop of blood. It reminds me of Tarantino's hand being forced into making the huge set-piece massacre in KILL BILL VOL. 1 black-and-white.