Excellent film-making in every aspect

Rating: 10/10 (11 February 2004)

I went into this movie, having heard good things about it but not knowing what would entail, thinking I was going to watch a Rocky film with perhaps a little more class. When it ended, I sat through the credits, just thinking, almost scarred by LaMotta's life. It was a journey, pure and simple. There was no climactic ending, but the fist thrusts at the end hurt me, and pretty much summarised the film itself. He just couldn't escape the rage and passion of the ring. I became so attatched to the character, and related to his every characteristic. A "real life" character played to the best possible effect by DeNiro. The directing and editing, too, keeps the story moving fluently and with a unique style, some effects in the ring actually reflecting the mood and atmosphere of a real fight perfectly. The Black and whiteness is indeed a brave step taken by, in my opinion, a brave and most worthy director. It emphasises the gritty, dry, and realistic approach to the lives of these brilliantly acted characters. The fight scenes could have been coreographed more realistically, but hey, this is film world. A few characters fade, leaving empty spaces to be filled, but the film moves on swiftly. Some may argue that the film could have been a bit shorter, but every minute worth of plot in there is vital to the overall impression of our main character. Everything collapses in the man's life, and we go from scene to scene feeling loss after loss after such emphatic highs. Great emotional impact helped by wonderfully emotional acting. I can identify with the realism of the character after the recent evidence of Frank Bruno's downfall, leading him into a mental hospital. It's the love of the game and the thrill of the fight that drive these characters out of moral society. Anyway, enough, this film strikes all the right chords, and rightly should be acclaimed as one of the top few films of the 80s for it's originality and character development.