Not as grand as they say

Rating: 6/10 (4 September 2012)

Well Raging bull is a movie that drags and after a while picks up and then drags on till it ends, this movie to me does not leave up to the classic rating it gets.
It tells the story of Jake LaMotta an Italian American Boxer; it is based on his (LaMotta) book Raging Bull: My Story. Robert De Niro portrays LaMotta a sadistic and jealous individual.
De Niro came across the story during the shooting of God father II, he showed it to Scorsese hoping he would make the movie, but Scorsese turned it down and after nearly dying from a drug overdose, Scorsese agreed to make the film for De Niro's sake, not only to save his own life but also to save what remained of his career.
After the script was made, both Scorsese and De Niro spent two and a half weeks on the island of Saint Martin, extensively re-building the content of the film changing what needed to be changed and adding what was missing.
The film was then made with a plot that shows how LaMotta rose to the top with the aid of his manager, and then due to his anger issues and jealous rage threw it all away and fell back to point zero.
The photography was nice; shooting in black and white didn't stop the movie from passing across its message. The movie helped launched Joe Pesci's career as the acting in the movie by all that were involved is an A+.
Locations used in the movie, well the set that was used will make you think you were in the 50s, as the set were well designed. Cinematography in the ring during the fights is something I did enjoy, as the camera got all angles and the blood flying too was well worked into it.
The other sad thing about this movie other than the length is the fight choreography, you can see at times that the punches were not landing and they were faked.
This is one of the eight movies that De Niro and Scorsese made together and not one of their best as Goodfellas still remain their best.
Not to put a damper on the mood here, but to me Raging Bull is a nice watch once and that is that.