Raging Bull (1980)

From my understanding, before this film was made, Martin Scorsese, arguably America's greatest filmmaker, was at the end of his rope. He was about to call it quits. His good friend, arguably America's greatest film actor, Robert De Niro, approached him with a book he had read. The title of the book was Raging Bull. After some coaxing, Robert finally convinced his friend to do the film, and it resulted in a MASTERPIECE!!!!!

"Raging Bull" is the story of former boxing middleweight champion Jake La Motta, and his penchant for self-destruction. La Motta is not in the least a nice guy. He is well, a jerk, who eventually drives any and everyone who has ever cared about him out of his life. He evolved from a lean, trim boxer to an overweight loser who owns a night club.

This film currently ranks on AFI's 100 Greatest Movies at #24, and for very good reason. It contains arguably THE GREATEST acting performance in the history of cinema, by arguably the greatest actor in the history of cinema, directed by arguably the greatest director in the history of cinema. But together, nothing needs to be argued, they are the greatest tag team in the history of cinema. Robert De Niro is flawless, superb, excellent, amazing, any positive adjective is warranted by his performance. There is a reason why they call him the greatest actor. This is it. (also "Taxi Driver") Naturally, Scorsese's direction is flawless, and Thelma Schoonmaker's editing will pretty much speak for itself. The black-and-white(or tinted monochrome) was an ingenious touch, similar to William Friedkin's gunshot at the very end of "The French Connection". It is the most beautiful movie I have ever seen, if it were a woman I could only beg to drink its bathwater. Joe Pesci is excellent as Jake's brother Joey, as is Cathy Moriarty as Jake's long suffering wife. It is sad when you realize that De Niro will never act that great again, but you find solace in the fact that he once did. He is maybe my favorite actor, Scorsese maybe my favorite director, and I only hope to have a millionth of the impact they've had on film. Far superior to "Rocky", even though Rocky is very good and contains maybe the most inspirational theme song ever.

This film was criminally robbed of 1980's Best Picture and Best Director Academy Awards, by "Ordinary People", another one of those dysfunctional family drama's. The Academy has since lost a huge amount of credibility, but I find solace in the fact that they honored De Niro with an award for Best Actor, in a performance that warrants two of them and makes me want to shine his shoes.

The film gets nothing less than a 10. It was voted the film of the 1980's decade. I agree wholeheartedly.

Scorsese and De Niro forever.