Excellent Film? Yes. Scorsese's Masterpiece? No.

Rating: 8/10 (5 December 2007)

I'm resistant to the many claims that "Raging Bull" is Scorsese's masterpiece. It's certainly excellent, but I think at least two of Scorsese's films on either side of this one -- "Taxi Driver" and "King of Comedy" -- are better.
Robert De Niro is truly impressive as Jake LaMotta, but, as so often happens with these biopics, the character he's given to play isn't all that interesting. Once he establishes that LaMotta was a boorish, abusive lout, the character has nowhere to go, and when I hear people praise De Niro's performance now, I almost always hear them talking about the weight he gained to play the role, not the performance itself. Joe Pesci gives the performance to watch in this film as La Motta's bullied little brother. He brings the film whatever emotional center it has. And Scorsese, who can sometimes do wonders with female characters, doesn't do so here; Cathy Moriarty's put-upon wife is window dressing.
What the movie does do well is provide a pitch-perfect illustration of what the American dream is to some people and what they're willing to sacrifice on the way to attaining it, and it does so with sterling black and white cinematography and cracker jack editing from Scorsese's long-time collaborator, Thelma Schoonmaker.
Grade: A-