Raging Bull is not a sports movie, it is a survey of the human condition...

Rating: 10/10 (21 June 2009)

Raging Bull (1980)
Number 1 - 1980
Number 1 - 1980s
Top 50 - All Time
"Raging Bull is another perfect example of why Scorsese is perhaps the greatest director of all..."
Raging Bull is a film of rare power. It is virtuoso filmmaking on the part of Scorsese. It is an intense examination of the volatile and self- destructive boxer, Jake La Motta - his jealousies, his insecurities his explosive anger...This is not a boxing movie...It is a movie that has boxing in it...La Motta uses boxing as a bloody catharsis to his everyday feelings and fears...The boxing scenes are so beautifully directed by Scorsese, and so effectively bloody, they make Rocky look like a fairytale...This is the best film of 1980, and the triumph of 1980s world cinema...It is a cinematic giant...
Paranoia and blind jealousy drive La Motta crazy and he often bursts against his brother and wife. In one scene, La Motta's instability is revealed when he goes to his brother's house when his brother is having lunch with his family and starts beating the hell out of him asking him: "Did you f*ck my wife?"
Raging Bull is not an easy film to enjoy; you do not easily relate to these characters; you watch closely, but safely from the outside...but these are people, and Scorsese and De Niro never look down at them...
Apart from Scorsese's sublime direction, Raging Bull could never have been the powerhouse that it turned out, were it not for Robert De Niro...Here is a performance for the ages, a total and absolute immersion - De Niro drives La Motta through extremes pains and cycles, from a raging bull, to a fat old man reduced to making jokes at a Florida club...
Cinema at its paramount...A rare masterpiece...
10/10