It's not a boxing film!

Rating: 9/10 (30 November 2017)

Yep, that's right. Raging Bull is not a film about boxing, but a boxer. Fight footage actually takes up very little of the movie. Yet, it casts a huge shadow over boxing movies to this day.
Firstly, there's De Niro's truly mesmerising performance. I don't consider Raging Bull to be his best film (that's Goodfellas) but it's certainly his best performance. De Niro excels at playing flawed characters, and La Motta is no exception. Jake may be one of the toughest SOB's around but essentially, he's a very insecure man, always paranoid that his beautiful wife is playing away, trusting no-one. He gives one of his opponents a sound beating because his wife dared to say he was good looking. Not to mention attacking his own brother. Bobby's total immersion in the character is amazing, he IS Jake. And he doesn't try to sugarcoat or gloss over the fact that Jake is... not a great guy. Also, he took the Method acting to another level. Obviously, he wasn't the first actor to bulk up for a role, but he was the first to take it to such extremes. Now you have the likes of Christian Bale constantly gaining and losing weight, but Bobby set the standard. Also, he trained professionally as a fighter. Believe me, boxing training ain't easy. Apparently he got really good, as well. Since then lots of respected thesps - Washington, Day-Lewis, Crowe - have played pugilists and all have trained with professionals. All thanks to De Niro.
Scorsese's bravura direction deserves mention, of course. How he consistently got these performances out of De Niro is a wonder. The brutality of the boxing (and many non-boxing) scenes is something else. His decision to shoot in black and white but with modern cinema techniques makes for a very arresting film. Some of the cinematography is just incredible. The opening, the Sugar Ray fight...Marty lost out on the best director Oscar to Robert Redford for Ordinary People that year, which also beat Raging Bull to Best Picture but time has proved which is the better movie.
Joe Pesci's finest moment may have been some years off yet (Goodfellas, again!) but he is totally believable as Jake's brother. He is likable and for the most part level-headed, so it's really tough to watch the part where Jake really beats him over a misunderstanding. Equally tough is Jake's lame, but genuine attempt to reconcile. And whatever happened to Cathy Moriarty? She's excellent here.