The best boxing movie EVER!!

Rating: 10/10 (27 February 2007)

Jake La Motta's life is told through Martin Scorsese's boxing masterpiece. Coming off De Niro and Scorsese's brilliant Taxi Driver, Raging Bull is possibly the best boxing movie ever made. Yes, it is better than Rocky! While Rocky had considerable flare and was a very good movie overall, it can't hold up to the brilliant portrayal of La Motta and his rise to fame. Raging Bull puts both of the (more than solid) new films Million Dollar Baby and Cinderella Man to shame. These movies (including Rocky) may depict boxing more realistically but then again that's part of the beauty of Raging Bull - it's rough and unpolished...making it that much more realistic overall. Joe Pesci is the perfect counterpart to De Niro - taking considerable burdens off De Niro and letting him craft La Motta in a way not seen in today's movies. How De Niro managed to transform himself as much as he did in this movie is a mystery to me, but it is further proof of his brilliance.