Raging Bull is a 1980 drama directed by one of the most respected American directors, Martin Scorsese. A complex and subtle film about the tragic and violent life of a prizefighter, it was based on boxer Jake LaMotta's autobiography. Actor Robert De Niro—who would end up playing LaMotta—had been recommending the autobiography to Scorsese for years, but the director decided to pursue other projects. After the lukewarm critical and commercial reception of his big-budget romantic musical New York, New York, Scorsese had lapsed into a deep depression and severe cocaine addiction. The self-destructive director found himself connecting to the story of Jake LaMotta, and he eventually agreed to make Raging Bull, a painful portrait about the perils of turbulent jealousy—and one of the best films ever made.
Raging Bull stars De Niro as Jake LaMotta, a man who rose from the low-income neighborhoods of the Bronx and became a middleweight boxing champion in the 1940s. Unlike Rocky and other boxing films, Raging Bull is not an inspirational, rags-to-riches sports story. We focus on LaMotta’s tumultuous, failed relationships with his second wife, Vickie (Cathy Moriarty), and his brother and manager, Joey (Joe Pesci), rather than his successes in the ring. Living a life devoid of any real introspection, Jake automatically responds to any conflict—in and outside the ring—with jealousy, a brutal temper, and violence. The film follows LaMotta’s career, as well as his retirement, which comprises of pathetic stand-up routines and time in prison.
Notoriously, De Niro gained over 50 pounds in the middle of principal production to convincingly portray the middle-aged LaMotta. We are now used to seeing actors like Christian Bale and Charlize Theron physically transforming for their roles, but De Niro’s commitment to embodying LaMotta was unprecedented at the time. However, the merit of De Niro’s performance should not be obfuscated by the actor’s intense preparation: his method acting approach can’t account for his ability to convey the totality of LaMotta’s internal conflicts, which are “like a burbling cauldron of jealousy, resent, and self-hatred,” as noted by Rolling Stone’s Scott Tobias. Without De Niro’s masterful performance, the film’s central character study would not nearly be as gripping or heartrending. De Niro (along with Scorsese, Schrader, and Martin) does not make us root for the abusive, masochistic LaMotta or even sympathize with him, but the actor allows the spectator to fully enter LaMotta’s headspace with some empathy. A man who cannot live an interior life with self-reflections and insights, who beats his head against a wall while shouting that he’s not an animal, is more deserving of our pity than our disgust.
Raging Bull was generally—but not unanimously—praised upon its release. In a glowing four-starred review, Roger Ebert rebuffed some of the critiques of the film: “...one of the criticisms of this movie is that we never really get to know the central character. I don't agree with that. I think Scorsese and Robert De Niro do a fearless job of showing us the precise feelings of their central character...” Even if some critics disputed Raging Bull’s character study, the film was universally admired for its performances. De Niro won an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and Pesci and Moriarty, who were both unknowns before the film’s release, received nominations for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and Best Actress in a Supporting Role, respectively. Raging Bull also earned five other Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, and Best Editing (which Thelma Schoonmaker won).
Since then, Raging Bull has become universally revered as a modern classic. Ebert proclaimed it to be the best film of the 1980s and one of the greatest films of all time. In 1990, the U.S. Library of Congress deemed Raging Bull “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant,” and it was the first film selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in its first year of eligibility. The American Film Institute’s esteemed “100 Years...100 Movies” list ranked Raging Bull as the 24th best American film ever made in 1998 and 5th in 2007 on its 10th Anniversary list.
Raging Bull is celebrated for its powerful, tour-de-force performances by De Niro, Pesci, and Moriarty, its wonderfully choreographed fight scenes, its masterful editing, and, most notably, its riveting portrayal of a man anguished by his own mounting paranoia. Scorsese and De Niro took risks in exerting all of their mental and physical energy into Raging Bull, but it certainly paid off, as evidenced by the film’s enduring respect within pop culture.
