Rage on! Raging Bull is a masterpiece. A very unique and entertaining watch.

Rating: 9/10 (13 March 2016)

After finishing reading boxer, Jake LaMotta's memoir, 'Raging Bull: My Story", I have to say the movie adaptation of this emotionally story of a self-destructive boxer, Jake LaMotta's (Robert De Niro) journey through life, as the violence and temper that leads him to the top in the ring, and but also hurt his private life outside it, is a brilliant black and white bio-pic. It's crude, harsh, and shocking – with its use of violence and adult-driven profanity though not as shocking as in an earlier draft of the screenplay by screenwriters, Paul Schrader & Mardik Martin, which show a lot more of Jake's bad side. Some good examples are when Jake is seen kicking and punching, a pregnant woman. Another one, not explained in the film, is the fact that La Motta had been a petty criminal, during his teen years, and he only learned boxing while in reform school. During much of his boxing career, Jake often feared that the law enforcement would be found out that he killed a local bookie during a failed robbery attempt, and he believed that he would "pay for" what he did, one way or another. La Motta would later, find out later in his boxing career, he had badly hurt the bookie, but didn't killed him. Nevertheless, I think the part of his story would had made the film, so much better. Despite that, most of the film changes does work, such as La Motta's fights, removal of La Motta's father, and the reduction of organized crime's role in the story. One of the better changes, was the merger of the characters of La Motta's friend, Pete Savage with that of his brother, Joey La Motta (Joe Pesci). Directed by Martin Scorsese, the movie is also well-shot. I love the use of slow moment in the black and white principal photography. I like how each of the boxing scenes was choreographed for a specific visual style. The fight scenes are very impressionistic. Even the color scenes were fine. I love how La Motta's color family home movies, really look real & personally. Just the fact, that these sequences were personally scraped by Martin Scorsese with a coat-hanger to ensure a rough, naturalistic feeling, made the film, so much better. I love how Scorsese seems to have lifted the film's distinctive look and feel directly from La Motta's autobiography. However, I glad Martin didn't follow with La Motta's style in which this movie was to be played for him. After all, La Motta's idea of jerky movements, with huge gaps. A string of poorly lit sequences, some of them with no beginning and some with no end with no musical score would be a little too unwatchable. Instead, the movie is well-paced, well shot, and has tons of beautiful classical music from 19th century, composer Pietro Mascagni and 1940/1950s jukebox. In my opinion, I think, it's one of Martin Scorsese's greatest movies. It's surprising to hear today, that this movie was almost the director's last movie. After nearly dying from a drug overdose in the 1970s, Scorsese agreed to make the film for Robert De Niro's sake. Not only did, this movie save Martin's own life but also to save what remained of his career. It really did redeem the director's life. Talking about career changing. This film almost made Robert De Niro into a bigger star. Preparation for his boxing role, Robert De Niro went through extensive physical training, then entered in three genuine Brooklyn boxing matches, just show how well-trained, he got. Surprising, De Niro won two of the bouts. If that wasn't enough, Robert De Niro is infamous for this film, for gained a record 60 pounds to play the older Jake LaMotta. What a remarkable performance from him. Even supporting actors like Joe Pesci did well. This was a breakout role for Pesci, a singer, comedian, and former child-actor. He had been in only one film before this, and nearly decided to quit acting before he was asked to play Joey. It pretty much, save Joe Pesci's career. Overall: Raging Bull had cemented its reputation as a modern classic, both with the critics and with general audiences. The use of gorgeous black-and-white photography mixed with great acting continue to evoke viewers even today's world. It's a must-watch for anybody who loves movies.