Pure Scorsese

Rating: Null/10 (26 August 2001)

This is THE classic Scorsese film. Shot in gritty black and white with some grainy color home movies thrown in for verisimilitude, the film gives us a frightening portrait of Jake La Motta, the sado-masochistic boxer.
In telling La Motta's story, Scorsese dramatizes what jealously, suspicion, and petty-mindedness can do to a person. It is a terrible journey of self-sabotage.
DeNiro gives the amazing tour-de-force performance that won him an Oscar. It is not a pleasant movie, but it does reveal the tragic flaws in human nature and even offers a slight bit of redemption.