The perfect film about a man's self destruction.

Rating: 10/10 (28 October 2006)

This is one of the most beguiling and emotionally upsetting films about a violent man's self destruction i have ever seen.
Martin Scorcese's masterpiece is like a violent 'Life' magazine turned three dimensional.
The fights that Jake La Motta has in the Boxing Ring with Sugar Ray Robinson are filmed like brutal stormy images in Hell.
Robert De Niro would not turn in a performance like this until 1991's Cape Fear. His Jake La Motta is mesmerising from start to finish. Now and again i think about that terrible sequence where La Motta is facing his shadow against a Jail Cell Wall, then starts beating his fists in a rage and screaming 'why' at himself. Lots of people always remember that scene.
Plus the moment where La Motta lets himself be beaten to a pulp by Sugar Ray Robinson is the turning point in the whole film. The character's downfall is horrible to watch both mentally and physically but that is the essence and power of this savage and brutal story.
Special mention must go to Joe Pesci as La Motta's brother Joey, who does well as the alienated sibling who ends up abandoning Jake because of his terrible assault on him for suspecting an affair with Jake's wife Vicki.
See this film. It is a Masterpiece.
Ten Out Of Ten