With the recent Oscar win of Clint Eastwood's 2004 boxing drama Million Dollar Baby, boxing movies have always been a powerful statement whether its for entertainment or for very personal drama. In and out of the ring, especially in its stories. In 1976, Sylvester Stallone wrote a movie called Rocky about an underdog boxer taking a top heavyweight champion to the limit. Four years later, Martin Scorsese took on a boxing movie that some say isn't just one of the best boxing movies of all-time but also considered to be the greatest American film of the 1980s. A harrowing rise-and-fall biopic on fighter Jake LaMotta, who was a middleweight boxing champion who lost it all through pressures on the world around him. Based on LaMotta's biography that he wrote with Joseph Carter and Peter Savage entitled Raging Bull.

Set in the time between LaMotta in his boxing prime in the early 1940s to his fall from grace in the early 1960s, Raging Bull follows a boxer whose life in and out of the ring is filled with violence and corruption. With help from his brother, Jake LaMotta tries to do right but his violent behavior would often ruin things, including his relationship with his young second wife. Adapted into a script by Mardik Martin and Scorsese's Taxi Driver scribe Paul Schrader, Raging Bull is really a character study about a man whose own corruption forces him to realize his failures in the end. Starring Robert de Niro as Jake La Motta along with future Scorsese regular Joe Pesci, Frank Vincent, Nicholas Colasanto, Theresa Saldana, and in her film debut, Cathy Moriarty. Raging Bull is a luminous, powerful masterpiece from Martin Scorsese.

It's 1964 as an old, big fat man is reciting a comedy routine for his upcoming show in a New York City bar. What is more shocking that this fat man who is now a has-been used to be none other than Jake La Motta, fearless middlewight boxer. It's 1941 in Cleveland as a young, healthy Jake is fighting Jimmy Reeves (Floyd Anderson) in front of a chaotic crowd. Though Jake managed to knock him out, he loses the fight much to the dismay of the crowd where all hell breaks loose and Jake's undefeated streak comes to an end. Helping Jake with his business issues and getting him into fights is his young brother Joey (Joe Pesci) as he talks to a local mob friend named Salvy Batts (Frank Vincent) about setting up another fight.

Jake's life at home though isn't good since he often fights with his first wife Irma (Lori Anne Flax) over overcooked steaks and things. While waiting for his next fight, Jake finds himself attracted to a beautiful but underage 15-year old girl named Vickie (Cathy Moriarty) who is often surrounded by Salvy and his boys. Jake wants to pursue her while Joey does his business until finally, Jake asks her out on a date. After a brief romance, Jake finally gets another fight thanks to connections from Joey and the local mob headed by Tommy Como (Nicholas Colasanto). It's 1943 and in their second of five fights from 1942-1945, Jake does the unthinkable when he finally knocks out Sugar Ray Robinson (Johnny Barnes) and defeats him for the first time. For a moment, Jake's life seems blissful in fight after fight despite a loss in a third match with Robinson.

After divorcing Irma and marrying Vickie while Joey gets married to Lenore (Theresa Saldana), marriage doesn't come easy for Jake. With no one to fight against and no one wanting to give him a title shot, he takes out his frustrations on Vickie and Joey. Joey finally gets him to a fight against a young kid named Tony Janiro (Kevin Mahon) where Vickie says he's a good-looking kid. Jake's insecurities and emotional frustrations into losing some weight increases when Tommy Como is putting money on the fight for Jake to win. Jake beats up Janiro easily yet becomes very suspicious into Vickie who has been going out more. One night when Joey catches Vickie being friendly with Salvy, he tells Vickie to go home as Joey gets into a huge fight with Salvy. Tommy asks the boys to call a truce while telling Joey to tell Jake to lose the next fight for some money.

The result of Jake losing unpurpose only gets him suspended and broken as he couldn't believe he lost like a bum but still wouldn't get knocked down. After waiting for another few years, Jake returns to the ring where he finally gets his shot for the title against Frenchman Marcel Cerdan (Louis Raftis) where Jake succeeds and becomes champion. Yet, being champion only makes Jake more insecure and as a result, begins to alienate everyone around him including Joey and Vickie. After a few more fights in the early 1950s where Jake emerges victorious, Jake's suspicions of Vickie's social life has gotten to him. Cutting off his brother for good, Jake goes at it alone only to fight Sugar Ray Robinson for one final time as his fall from grace begins.

Now retired and over-the-hill as a fat man living in Miami with Vickie and their children, Jake now becomes a stand-up comedian running his own club telling mediocre jokes in the mid-1950s. With Vickie finally having enough of him and wanting a divorce, Jake is all alone with no one to turn to as his troubles finally catch up with one day about something in his club. After his troubles in Florida are done, he tries to make amends with Joey while continuing his stand-up routine where he recites a line from On the Waterfront about his own failures.

The classic rise-and-fall storyline is always done in some kind of formula but in the way Martin Scorsese and his writers Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin chose to approach it by making it into a simple character study. Going for a visually, poetic style of directing with hand-held cameras, freeze-frames, frame-speeds, and all sorts of unconventional style. Scorsese presents a beautiful yet harrowing tale of a boxer who had it all only to realize that he blew it. Overall, it's Scorsese's realistic take on drama that gives the movie a lasting quality from what goes on in the ring to what happens outside the ring. There's never a moment where the drama is over-the-top, especially in famous scenes where Jake asks Joey to hit him or the jail-cell scene in where Jake ponders why he's done this to himself.

While the film's dramatic moments is wonderfully done thanks to Scorsese's direction, a lot of the credit should go to the screenwriters, Martin and Schrader. Easy enough to follow along in their structure, the story pretty much is told in a simple yet stylized way from the domestic drama to everything that goes on in the ring. The first act of the story is Jake working his way into the top and the second act is where Jake reaches it only to find ways to blow it. The third act of the story isn't necessarily a boxing movie but instead becomes an aftermath of what happens when a boxer is done and becomes in what Marlon Brando's Terry Malloy in Elia Kazan's classic 1954 film On the Waterfront says "I could have class, I could've been a contender. I could've been somebody, instead of a bum". That line itself pretty much sums up the failures of Jake La Motta who realizes what he's done in the end.

While Scorsese gets a lot of the credit for the film's presentation, Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin deserves equal credit for their realistic view on storytelling as well as the film's authentic dialogue. Especially in the film's spectacular boxing sequences which are some of the most beautiful and downright bloody images captured on film. With the real Jake La Motta serving as a consultant, the boxing sequences aren't just choreographed right down to its essential but also the camera movements and presentation including one sequence of a man getting knocked down with the camera falling down with him. Even in short sequences there's movements of freeze-frame shots, slow-motion angles, and everything.

It's not just Scorsese, La Motta, and the screenwriters who gets credit but some very important collaborators who capture the grit of what goes on in the ring. Cinematographer Michael Chapman's lighting and use of flashbulbs with the black-and-white photography is evocative in every frame to see, especially from the shots where the cameras would flash their bulbs and to what goes on in the ring with smoky air surrounding the fighters. While Chapman's other work on the film is filled with great, authentic moments, it's his work in the boxing ring that brings poetry to those images. Another person who is responsible for the boxing scenes is Scorsese's longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker who's fast-cutting style and uses of freeze-frames, slow speeds, and stylized tone of editing gives the boxing scenes a moment of horror and wonderful imagery. Even in the shorter sequences, there's a great style as it's a masterwork in the world of editing.

The sound design of Les Lazarowitz and Bill Nicholson add a lot of chaos to the ring from the anger and excitement to the crowds to the swift punches and swings of the boxers inside. Even at moments, the sound is so authentic with every punch, the audience couldn't help but wince and groan at every punch delivered. Make-up artist Michael Westmore also deserves credit not just for his work in the ring with the blood coming out of the faces but also the make-up for the over-the-hill Jake La Motta that shows the sadness of a man who fell from grace hard. Helping the film with its authentic look on the New York sequences outside of the ring is production designer Gene Rudolf along with art director Sheldon Harber for many of the film's bar scenes and nightlife of 1940s/1950s America while Rudolf also does the design of houses and boxing rings in many of the film's other sequences. Costume designers John Boxer and Richard Bruno also do amazing work on the film’s costume, especially the dresses of the female actresses and the suits of all the male actors.

While the film features a lot of old music from the likes of Perry Como, Tony Bennett, and other singers of the time, many of the film's music is from the works of composer Pietro Mascagni, especially the film's opening orchestral score in the opening credits of Jake La Motta boxing alone. The music helps in what Scorsese wanted in terms of its dramatic effect and ode to nostalgia. Helping Scorsese with the use of music is former leader of the Band, Robbie Robertson who was Scorsese's leading music producer for several of his films during the 80s. Robertson deserves credit for placing the music on where it should be that helps the film with its authenticity.

Finally, there's the film's superb cast of actors that features great performances from the men who play many of La Motta's opponents, notably Johnny Barnes in the role of Sugar Ray Leonard. Also mentioned for their cameo roles are Martin Scorsese as a bar hand in the film's final scene and his father Charles as Tommy Como's friend as well as early appearances from Michael Badalucco as a soda-pop clerk and John Turturro as a guy in the table in the party scene where Jake sees Vickie. While Theresa Saldana and Lori Anne Flax had small roles as the respective wives of Joey and Jake, they definitely are memorable, especially Flax as Jake’s volatile first wife. Nicholas Colasanto is excellent as the sleazy but charming mob boss Tommy Como with his wit and corruptive power. Frank Vincent is also amazing as the hard-nosed and nasty Salvy who likes to get things into trouble and it's a memorable role since Vincent is a well-known character actor.

In her film debut at only 18-years old, Cathy Moriarty gives an amazing, sprawling performance as the beautiful but frustrated Vickie. Moriarty brings a toughness and grace to her role while having great scenes with Pesci and de Niro while standing on her own. Making her character more complex, even towards the end of the film, Moriarty grows from a battered wife who has been sexually and socially neglected to a woman who has had enough and wants to move on. This is a wonderful performance from the always brilliant and funny Moriarty. Joe Pesci gives an amazing, fierce performance as Joey with his tough-minded business attitude and as a conscience-of-sorts for Jake despite the bad things he does for himself too. Whenever he's near Jake, Pesci always tells him what to do and what is right but we also see a real mean side as he goes ballistic in a famous fight scene against Frank Vincent. Though Pesci hasn't been around in the film world since the late 90s, he's an actor that no one can forget as he is truly one of Scorsese's finest actors.

The film's greatest performance easily goes to Robert de Niro in the title role as Jake La Motta not in how he played the man in his prime but what he had to do with his craft as an actor. When de Niro comes in as the boxer, he epitomizes everything that is about La Motta in the ring as a tough SOB who wouldn't go down for anyone, even if he has to lose a fight. Out of the ring in the early scenes, we see that a lot of his anger and frustration leads to a lot of insecurities, especially sexually since he really never has the time or he's afraid that it might jinx him. It's something that de Niro was able to capture in the film's first two acts.

In the third act, the legend was true that during production, it was shut down so that de Niro could gain about 60 pounds to play the older La Motta and in that disguise, de Niro succeeds in bringing the failure and troubled side of La Motta where it's no longer about the exterior but more about what's inside. It's truly a great performance from one of the greatest actors of our time who now unfortunately has decided to become a bum by doing stupid films and getting his butt kicked by none other than Tootsie in a football game. Sad...

Now many people will say movies like The Breakfast Club, Wall Street, or many other known films of the 1980s as the best film of that decade. No, in truth Raging Bull is and will always be the Greatest Movie of the 1980s because of its artistry. While the film only won two Oscars for Best Actor for de Niro and Best Editing for Thelma Schoonmaker, it never won Best Picture or Best Director which went to the more harrowing family drama Ordinary People by its director Robert Redford in his film debut. Still, it doesn't take Oscars or any kind of awards to acknowledge the brilliance of Raging Bull.

With a lot of credit going to Martin Scorsese for his enigmatic vision along with the contributions of writers Mardik Martin and Paul Schrader along with the film's collaborators like Michael Chapman, Thelma Schoonmaker, Michael Westmore, and producer Irwin Winkler. Many fans of Martin Scorsese will no doubt find this film as a true starting point to his work while it's a film that everyone has to see. Anyone who knows the Robert de Niro of now should see this film to see what a great actor he used to be along with the great supporting performances of Joe Pesci and Cathy Moriarty. Recently, this film was voted as the # 1 Sports Movie of All-Time by Entertainment Weekly and, they’re right pretty much. In the end, if you want to watch a great movie about boxing and all the drama that goes behind it, Raging Bull is the film to see.

Martin Scorsese Films:

Mean Streets (1973):

(Coming Soon)

Taxi Driver (1976):

http://www.epinions.com/content_154715000452

The Last Temptation of Christ (1988):

(Coming in 2005)

Goodfellas (1990):

(Coming in 2005)

The Aviator (2004):

(Coming in 2005)

The Departed (2006):

http://www.epinions.com/content_263082315396



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age