Scorsese's Masterpiece!

Rating: 10/10 (23 September 1998)

The best movie of the '80's, director Martin Scorsese pulled off what no one else would have attempted: the unsympathetic story of perhaps the most unsympathetic character in all of American cinema, Jake La Motta. Starring Robert De Niro, "Raging Bull" is not a boxing movie in the vein of "Rocky". There is plenty of boxing in it, some of the best boxing scenes ever put onto celluloid, and the movie does follow his rise as a professional boxer. However, all of that is a backdrop for Jake's real story, his fall as a human being. The closer Jake gets to his goal of winning the Middleweight Championship, the closer he is to destroying his own life. And once he achieves his goal, all of the energy and passion that went into fighting in the ring he turns to fighting out of the ring and he does just that, destroys his life. Shot in beautiful Black & White and co-staring Joe Pesci and Cathy Moriarty, "Raging Bull" is Martin Scorsese's masterpiece.