Review of Raging Bull (1980) by Elliott F — 26 Jun 2012

Thrilling is the only word that can appropriately describe Martin Scorsese's masterpiece Raging Bull. With his trademark bullet-fast directing and editing, paired with striking black and white cinematography and some incredible performances, Raging Bull is everything film is about.

Robert De Niro plays Jake LaMotta, a truly abominable man, who gets violently jealous of virtually everybody who his wife Vickie (Cathy Moriarty) looks at. Raging Bull follows LaMotta from his rise as a great boxer to his fall as a self-parody doing nightclub acts.

Moriarty made her film debut here, and she's a revelation. Stunningly gorgeous with some serious acting chops as well, her Vickie is an abused wife, but never a defeated one. As Joey, Jake's brother, Joe Pesci is his typical great self, only with something a little different.

There's a certain vulnerability present her that's not shown in any of Pesci's other roles, and it is terrific. De Niro won his second Oscar for playing LaMotta, and he is the film's MVP, easily.

As an actor, De Niro has a tendency to push himself to terrifying limits, all for the sake of his art. Packing on a huge amount of weight for LaMotta's later life and going so far as the getting himself beat up in fights and beating his fists against a cement wall, De Niro's performance is riveting and frightening.

This is really one of the best films of the 80s, and a great achievement.