{"id":16192,"date":"2025-08-01T02:05:56","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T06:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=16192"},"modified":"2026-04-17T16:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T20:10:08","slug":"raging-bull-1980","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=16192","title":{"rendered":"Raging Bull-1980"},"content":{"rendered":"

Raging Bull-1980<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Martin Scorsese<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Cathy Moriarty<\/strong><\/p>\n

Top 250 Films #132<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #1,256<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed May 14, 2022<\/p>\n

Grade: A<\/strong><\/p>\n

Raging Bull (1980) might be director Martin Scorsese’s most personal film and his most character-driven.<\/p>\n

His other films contain great characters, rich with life, but with the focus firmly planted on controversial real-life boxer Jake LaMotta (Robert De Niro), there is much to explore.<\/p>\n

His descent into madness is hard to watch but also impossible to look away from.<\/p>\n

It’s tough to top the De Niro\/Scorsese pairing in Taxi Driver (1976), when the actor simply kicked the audience’s ass with his ferocious portrayal of the maniacal Travis Bickle.<\/p>\n

LaMotta arguably surpasses that portrayal because the boxer experiences the highest of the highs with the lowest of the lows.<\/p>\n

And the audience is whisked away with him on the journey from heaven to hell. Arguably, director and actor’s finest film, Raging Bull, is often painful to watch, but it’s a searing, powerful work about an unsympathetic hero who we can’t help but explore.<\/p>\n

A double-pairing film extravaganza of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull is a fabulous idea, though the viewer may need a Valium to combat the resulting anxiety after watching them.<\/p>\n

I love the title, Raging Bull, because it is so apt and central to the film. Fueled with machismo, testosterone, and anger, Jake LaMotta certainly is a raging bull.<\/p>\n

Screenwriters Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin, frequent collaborators of Scorsese’s, adapt the story from Raging Bull: My Story, a 1970 memoir written by LaMotta.<\/p>\n

Raging Bull tells the story of an Italian-American middleweight boxer as he struggles through the ranks to earn his first shot at the middleweight crown.<\/p>\n

He possesses a self-destructive and obsessive rage, jealousy, and animalistic appetite that destroy his relationship with his wife and family.<\/p>\n

Wonderfully cast as his wife, Vickie is played by Cathy Moriarty, a gorgeous girl from the Bronx who falls head over heels in love with Jake. Joe Pesci plays his well-intentioned brother and manager, who unsuccessfully tries to help Jake battle his inner demons.<\/p>\n

Jake’s inability to express his feelings enters the ring and eventually takes over his life. He is sent into a downward spiral that costs him everything.<\/p>\n

Comparisons to the exceptional Rocky (1976) are cute and perhaps contain some merit on paper, but. In contrast, the former is heroic and compelling; the main characters are nothing alike except that they are both struggling boxers who achieve success.<\/p>\n

Both are sports films, but Raging Bull is much, much darker and purely a character study.<\/p>\n

The cinematography by Michael Chapman and the Film Editing by Thelma Schoonmaker are deserving of accolades and make the picture as flawless as it is.<\/p>\n

Scorsese includes enough boxing scenes to showcase the fantastic editing required for these difficult sequences.<\/p>\n

The editing is lightning-quick, and the thunderous bombast makes the viewer feel each blow of the glove against the skin. The blood and sweat are legendary components of these scenes.<\/p>\n

The black-and-white cinematography is jaw-dropping, especially powerful in the kitchen fight scene between Jake and Joey. The brutal buildup is hard to stomach as Jake’s dementia becomes evident.<\/p>\n

Despite the other qualities of the film that bring it all together, my favorite aspect is the performance De Niro delivers, which wins him a much-deserved Best Actor Oscar.<\/p>\n

He is powerful and animalistic, playing both subtle rage and explosive anger. His tragic final act as a much older and fat man is shrouded in heartbreak and pain for both the character and the viewer to experience.<\/p>\n

All the pieces of Raging Bull (1980) add up perfectly into a masterpiece.<\/p>\n

The violence and pain are enshrouded in poetic dialogue and beautiful, illuminating camerawork that explore one man’s battles and struggles, both inside the squared circle and internally.<\/p>\n

Oscar Nominations: 2 wins-<\/strong>Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor-Robert De Niro (won)<\/strong>, Best Supporting Actor-Joe Pesci, Best Supporting Actress-Cathy Moriarty, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing (won)<\/strong>, Best Sound<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Raging Bull-1980 Director Martin Scorsese Starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Cathy Moriarty Top 250 Films #132 Scott’s Review #1,256 Reviewed May 14, 2022 Grade: A Raging Bull (1980) might be director Martin Scorsese’s most personal film and his most character-driven. His other films contain great characters, rich with life, but with the focus firmly … Continue reading Raging Bull-1980<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7876,106,158,1663,192,10338,1162,1642,414,10339,1066,209,10337,7464],"tags":[7877,107,159,1668,193,10341,1163,1648,415,10342,1067,210,10340,7460],"class_list":["post-16192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-132-favorite-film","category-1980-films","category-bios","category-cathy-moriarty","category-dramas","category-frank-vincent","category-joe-pesci","category-john-turturro","category-martin-scorsese-films","category-nicholas-colasanto","category-robert-deniro","category-sports-films","category-theresa-saldana","category-top-250-films","tag-132-favorite-film","tag-1980-film-reviews","tag-biographies","tag-cathy-moriarty","tag-dramas-2","tag-frank-vincent","tag-joe-pesci","tag-john-turturro","tag-martin-scorsese-films","tag-nicholas-colasanto","tag-robert-deniro","tag-sports-films","tag-theresa-saldana","tag-top-250-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16192"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22920,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16192\/revisions\/22920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}