The Greatest Movie Ever Made

Rating: 10/10 (21 February 2008)

Few sites in cinema are as poetic as the opening shot of Martin Scorcese's dramatic masterpiece. The slowness and grace of Jake La Motta preparing himself for the fight is an excellent juxtaposition for the rest of the movie. It's the calm before the storm. It's Scorcese's way of putting us in a false sense of security, and it works perfectly.
However, this is just one of many great things about Raging Bull. The editing, cinematography, art direction and sound all excel like in no other movie. Robert De Niro's career best performance as the tortured boxer stands as one of the best ever committed to film, the script is brutal and realistic, and the direction is unbelievably good. Few films have the same impact on an audience as that as Raging Bull. It could be because Scorcese directs it in such a way that we all respond to it emotionally, but it's more likely that for all that Jake does wrong to his family, we sympathise with him, because we all want to be forgiven for the things we've done wrong.
I think this film is perfect in every way a movie needs to be. It's a masterpiece, a work of art. It's films like this which change the way a person looks at the world