Raging Bull explores the soul of a profoundly violent man and search for the human core buried deep inside him.

Rating: 10/10 (12 June 2010)

Raging Bull is one of the bloodiest and most beautiful reflections on atonement in director Martin Scorsese's canon... it's still one of the cinema's most breathtaking films. It chronicles the rise to fame of an unlikable but virtually unstoppable middle-weight boxer (Robert De Niro), based on the autobiography of Jake La Motta, nicknamed the Bronx Bull.
Filmed largely in black-and-white, this tough, compelling, powerfully made melodrama takes us uncomfortably close to the jarring action in the ring. An astonishing performance from De Niro, who inhabits the role to an eerie extent, and Scorsese orchestrates events with the aim of capturing the crunching reality of this world. It's brutal, and not a single character truly engages one's sympathy, but there's undeniably a visual poetry about it.