Now I really know, why Scorsese is called "one of the greatest"

Rating: 9/10 (18 January 2007)

Really now, I've seen "Gangs of New York" and was like "Huh? And what's the big deal about this guy?" I've lately bought "Raging Bull" and watched it a few times ever since. And I start to understand.
As I read in the booklet (God bless the Gold Editions!) Martin Scorsese was very sick before and during the shooting of this movie and also wasn't excited about the material at all. Robert DeNiro literally had to persuade him of taking a deeper look at it. After discovering his own self-destructive side during some time in the hospital, Scorses finally found his relation to Jake LaMotta and started to shoot. Or at least tried, because they had to force the producers into paying them, they used "Rocky II" to put pressure on them, but anyway, "Raging Bull" started. Maybe this is one of the big difficulties and one of the reasons, why many people don't get this movie. Even Scorsese didn't get it for a long time.
I don't know if I'm the only one who does it like that, but I start to judge a film already by its opening credits and damn, "Raging Bull" has surely some Top 5 opening credits of all times! It's absolutely hypnotic to see DeNiro jump and punch in the ring, all in slow motion with this beautiful music in the back. Ties you to the seat from the beginning. And it's necessary to tie the viewer to the seat with all these horrible scenes that come afterward. Horrible in the sense of the desired horror of a horrible person. The whole movie analyzes Jake's life. He treated his ex-wife, his brother and almost everybody else close to him very bad. Only in the ring he was at home and wanted the way he was. And so it feels in the movie. The boxing scenes are artistic, stylistic, even iconic. The rest is the filth of a bad life. Fights and beatings, arguments, destruction, torment. Jake LaMotta. And the audience must feel just like Jake LaMotta must feel while watching this movie: Uncomfortable. Bad. Just what the film makers wanted.
It is surely no secret that DeNiro delivers one of his absolutely greatest performances ever here. Most people only know about the 60 pounds he gained. But that's only the easiest aspect of his preparations for this role. He also trained about the year with Jake LaMotta and even fought 3 real fights in Brooklyn. And won two of them. He was in the shape to become a contender! He talks like LaMotta too. There is this interview where for only one second the young LaMotta comes back and Jake talks like in the old days. You feel strange because it seems, he's acting like DeNiro. Of course Joe Pesci and everybody else are terrific too but DeNiro is just a giant.
As a last aspect the artistic structure of some scenes: The third fight against Sugar Ray is shot in a bigger ring with fires burning under the camera to create this blurring and the smoky heat you can almost smell. The breath of Sugar Ray is a lion or a tiger. The shot of LaMotta's weak legs was made with DeNiro carrying another guy on his shoulders. Sorry but how much more creativity and brilliance can a director develop to make scenes like this??? Maybe some people first don't get the idea of self-destruction and second can't enjoy the uncomfortable feeling while watching this flick and give it bad rates because of this. It would flatter the movie when it really is like that.
I love the movie. It is a huge picture and will probably never be forgotten.