Raging Bull (1980) Review

 

Raging Bull (1980)

Raging Bull follows boxer, Jake LaMotta, as he rises through the ranks to get a shot at the middleweight title.

For a movie about a boxer, this is not a movie about boxing. It is a movie about Jake LaMotta and the parallels between his troubled life in and out of the ring. In the ring, he is a fast and brutal machine that left many opponents frightened at his power. But outside of the ring, he was just as worse, being an often drunk, delusional, and extremely abusive husband, brother, and person. He was insecure about his (barely legal) wife and his way of showing his love usually came at the end of his fist, with him fearing she would leave him for someone else.

The boxing scenes were excellent, bringing an intense energy to them that never felt inspiring, but felt like him letting all of his built up insecurities and anger out on the unfortunate opponents that stepped into the ring with him.

It was also shot in a beautiful black & white that furthered the accuracy of the period piece, but also brought a feeling of misery and depression to a time that was ripe with it.

The movie starred lots of the usual suspects in Joe Pesci, veteran mob actor Frank Vincent, Cathy Moriarty, & Robert De Niro. De Niro, right after Taxi Driver, puts forth a fantastic but terrifying performance as Jake LaMotta, bringing such a violence and psychotic take that perfectly captures the boxer. His nearly 60lb weight gain in the final act also made for an unrecognizable and impressive bit that made for some real Tony Soprano vibes. Pesci also shines in one of his best roles, with his and De Niro’s brotherly, shit-talking dynamic done so well.

Fresh off the heels of Rocky in ‘76, Raging Bull provides one of the best movies of all time in this revealing look at Jakes LaMotta’s rise and fall, being a true raging bull in and out of the ring. It was a raw and far from inspirational take that showed LaMotto for what he was, a wildly successful and powerful boxer, sure, but also a violently abusive, insecure, and self destructive man, which Scorsese so accurately captures in this masterpiece for the mind and senses.

9.7/10