Raging Bull is about Jake La Motta's life and how he dealt with his anger inside the ring and outside the ring and what it ended up costing him.

Rating: 4/10 (18 March 2012)

"Raging Bull" is about Jake La Motta's life and how he dealt with his anger and aggression inside the ring as well as outside the ring. The violent behavior served him well inside the boxing ring but cost him everything outside the ring. As he won fights he slowly lost the family and friends that were close to him because of his violent behavior and jealousy. This film was made in black and white to set it apart from other boxing films coming out at the same time, such as Rocky II or Rocky III and The Main Event. Jake's power and speed was captured in the slow motion scenes and the sounds.
Jake La Motta (Robert DeNiro) is a very violent boxer who along with Joey (Joe Pesci), his brother slash manager climbs the ladder in the boxing world, by destroying his opponents one by one in his own way, until he finally gets a chance to fight Sugar Ray Robinson. His violent behavior mixed with his jealousy and paranoia follows Jake into his personal relationships with his family and friends. The theme surrounds how his violence in the ring, which takes him to the top of the boxing world, will also spill over into his personal life and will bring Jake to the lowest point in his life which will leave him all alone.
His brother Joey has connections with the local mob boss named Salvy (Frank Vincent), who helps him get a title fight with Sugar Ray Robinson, on the condition that he lay down one fight first which he does and is disqualified. Jake wins six or seven fights in a row and ends up fighting Sugar Ray Robinson twice. The second fight, Jake actually loses because the judges decided to rule in favor of Robinson because he was enlisting in the army and leaving the boxing world for a period of time. Jake would not let that loss get him down and went on to win one fight after another.
Jake along with his brother Joey visit a local swimming pool where he spots a fifteen year old girl named Vickie(Cathy Moriarty) and falls in love with her instantly, despite the argument brought to him by Joey, that he was already married. Jake eventually divorces his first wife and marries Vickie but then becomes dangerously jealous of her, often times accusing her of falling for other men, including his brother. Jake starts a fight with Joey, who decides not to be Jakes manager anymore. Jake ends up in the ring all alone wishing his brother was there.
After a few years, Jake announces that he would retire and had bought a nightclub. Vickie tells Jake she wants a divorce and would take the children with her. Jake would then be arrested for allowing underage girls in his nightclub and connecting them to older men. Jake is convicted and ends up serving time in jail where he finds himself all alone again. Jake violently pounds the jail cell and cries and finally realizes that he is all alone. He eventually runs into Joey in a parking lot and gives him a hug, after being released from jail.
This film is a lot like "Rocky" but much more violent. The movie "Rocky" was about a boxer, who fought his way to the top of the boxing world, inside the ring but allowed it to affect his personal life in a negative way. He became a champion in the ring but almost cost him his family outside the ring.
The camera angles capture the intensity and the violence in Jake's face as well as his opponents faces through close-ups and slow motion scenes throughout most of the fight scenes. The uses of slow motion in the boxing scenes, as well as the sound effects represent or capture the idea of superhuman strength and speed throughout Jake's fights. This represents the violence that Jake carried into the ring but also spilled over into his personal life.