Raging Bull (1980) **1/2

Rating: 6/10 (29 August 2006)

I found this highly worshiped film to be very rough going at first because this real-life story of the very unlikeable boxer Jake La Motta was largely uneventful for a good long hour or more. In that time, La Motta bounces around from one mediocre boxing match to the next. He likes to yell a lot. Years zip by without meaning. He worries about getting fat. He meets Cathy Moriarty. I kept asking myself what was supposed to be so "terrific" about this picture, and why wasn't anything interesting occurring? But I finally (and I do mean "finally") began to become somewhat sucked in somewhere around the 75-90 minute mark, and then what I witnessed was good, solid drama. Robert De Niro was exceptional and Joe Pesci was well cast as his brother. Some good acting and a real feel for the era of the '40s and '50s. Not a "great film" in my estimation by any means, and quite overrated when considered by the majority to be such ... but a "pretty good" one by the time the last bell was rung. **1/2 out of ****