What makes Raging Bull as brilliant as it is is the film’s brutal and silent honesty. On the outside of Raging Bull, it’s imagery gives the feel of a boxing movie and that’s obviously true with the themes, but I believe that’s just the backdrop. In the whole course of the movie there are only 10 minutes of boxing. The chosen character of the study is performed to divine perfection by one of the greatest screen-actors of all-time and my personal favourite actor Robert De Niro. His performance is undoubtedly the most powerful of the entire decade. He portrays the character with as much aggression, love and fear than you would expect. It’s a truely remarkable watch just for that one performance. But it’s not just De Niro’s performance that makes it memorable. Joe Pesci is flawless as the younger brother and so is Cathy Moriarty as his long suffering wife. Scorsese’s direction is as powerful and moving as ever and his screenplay is just remarkable to listen to. It’s a truely masterful piece of writing that will go down in history for it’s portrayal of emotions. The Academy-award winning editing is quite simply beautiful. Just the shots of the wet sponge on De Niro’s face make it more than worth the while. It’s dignified and it makes the film feel more like a documentary than a biopic in itself. This for me is the finest pairing between De Niro and Scorsese. It’s a heart-wrenching masterpiece and it should go down as one of the finest movies ever made. I love it.