Raging Bull

United States

1980

129 Min

Black and White

1.85:1

English

Currently 4.3/5 Stars.
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PROD Robert Chartoff, Irwin Winkler

SCR Paul Schrader, Jake LaMotta, Joseph Carter, Mardik Martin, Peter Savage

CAST Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Cathy Moriarty, Frank Vincent, Nicholas Colasanto, Theresa Saldana, Mario Gallo, Frank Adonis, Michael Badalucco

PROD DES Phil Abramson, Frederic C. Weller, Carl Biddiscombe

SOUND Michael Evje, Les Lazarowitz

Synopsis

Nominated for eight Academy Awards and boasting some of the best fight scenes on film, Robert DeNiro (who won Best Actor honors and famously gained 50 pounds for the role) plays the self-destructive middleweight champion Jake LaMotta. His increasing paranoia leads to professional and personal devastation as his manager brother Joe Pesci and teenaged wife Cathy Moriarty grapple with his violence outside the ring. Bristling with energy and shot in crisp black-and-white, this is a must see on the big screen. –AFI

Director

Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese was born in New York City and soon developed a passion for cinema and a particular admiration for neo-realist cinema which inspired him and influenced his view or portrayal of his Sicilian heritage. After graduating from NYU Film School in 1966 and making a number of shorts, he shot his first feature-length film Who’s That Knocking at My Door (1968) with fellow student, actor Harvey Keitel, and editor Thelma Schoonmaker both of whom were to become long-term collaborators. Mean Streets followed in 1973 and provided the benchmarks for the ‘Scorsese style’. After Scorsese directed Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, the trio was reunited for the dark journey of Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver. After New York, New York Scorsese released Raging Bull. The acclaimed biography of middleweight fighter Jake LaMotta was followed by exploration of fans as pariah in The King of Comedy, dark-comic dreams in After Hours and pool sharks in The Color of Money. Scorsese outraged some religious… read more

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Enquan Gu

28Apr13

I know Bob made a great of sacrifice for this movie but it's an okay movie anyway.

J. Nyhuis

30Apr13

It's never been one of my favorites by Scorsese, either.

jamie-scott-dyson

22Mar13

It was just one massive elegant artistic statement, I loved it.

KARIKOMI

9Jan13

Aristotle once said that for someone to live in isolation, a place LaMotta perpetually finds himself in one sense or another, he must be either a god or a beast. LaMotta's brutish and immoral behavior makes him not only difficult to understand or tolerate, but also led me to constantly question why I should care about what happens to him at all. His self-proclaimed "stupidity" seemed disingenuous but accurate.

The Macho King The Illmatic One likes this

Ace Craven

20Dec12

Every scene is directed with one end-goal: penis envy. This makes for a focused, although narrow, scope of emotion. LaMotta derives his identity, or better, his moral compass from the ring. Breaking the fighter's code shatters the value he sees in life (and leads to one of the best set of scenes put to film). This is a movie about a raging bull and when his castration is complete, he can only live in the past.

Kelvin Renan and 2 others like this

The Macho King The Illmatic One, Pierre