Robert De Niro serves up a knockout

Rating: 7/10 (5 February 2014)

Raging Bull is a magical documentary turned into a film. The film highlights the life of the famous boxer Jake La Motta played by the great Robert De Niro. The movie goes far beyond La Motta's path of greatness in the ring but also into his own personal bouts.
The movie is about a prize fighter Jake La Motta's rise to middleweight boxing title. La Motta's epic battles with Sugar Ray Robinson are only part of this award winning film. The movie also encompasses Jake's personal battles with his own jealousy issues revolving around his wife Vickie La Motta played by Cathy Moriaty. Through out Jake's rise and fall, his brother accompanies him and manager Joey La Motta played by Joe Pesci. The brother's relationship becomes strained when Jake's constant struggles of jealousy cause him to battle his own brother. Jake's goes from the top to rock bottom because his own self-destruction gives him his only knockout.
Martin Scorsese creates a beautiful black and white film, which will stand the test of time. The lighting used in the film gives an authentic feel to the entire movie. The actors were Academy Award winning, led by Robert De Niro the cast worked masterfully together. De Niro set the bar as an actor in this movie. It is clear that De Niro truly lived as Jake La Motta during this film, not only can you see his perfection in his lines, you also see him work his craft with his own body. De Niro had to fluctuate his weight several times throughout the film just to give the authentic feel of a boxer's life and behind the scene struggles. This movie is more than a boxing film; it is visually stunning with the simplicity of black and white you feel like your ringside.
I believe the movie storyline was good but not great, while I was fascinated with the great acting I still found myself being unconnected to the characters. I was continually let down by Jake's character and felt little to no sympathy when he hit rock bottom. Although an autobiography has to stay true to its storyline, it can and should create characters the viewer can relate to. Scorsese does a great job working with what he had; the contrast between black and white along with home movies in color gave a realistic feel to the movie. Aside from my lack of connection with the characters this movie was still a knockout.