Raging Bull was a comeback movie of sorts for famed director Martin Scorsese. By the end of the 1970s, Scorsese was battling a crippling addiction to cocaine and had a box-office failure on his hands with New York, New York. Raging Bull gave the freshly sober Scorsese the opportunity to re-establish himself as a filmmaker of importance and visually striking style, and Scorsese grabbed this bull by the horns and did just that.
Raging Bull tells the true story of middle weight boxing champion Jake La Motta (Robert De Niro), whose brutal reputation within the ring is matched by that outside, with La Motta one of the scariest and unpredictable figures to populate Scorsese’s world of hard men with short tempers.
Shot in black and white, Scorsese effectively portrays the brutality of La Motta’s life with a beautiful artistry and emotional power that has rarely been matched. To call Raging Bull a “street opera” is an apt description, as the film chronicles the rise and fall of this brute of a man with an unflinching gaze.
De Niro’s dedication to his performance as La Motta is a thing of legend. After getting himself in excellent shape to portray La Motta in his prime, De Niro famously went on an eating spree across Italy to gain 60 pounds (27 kgs). The end results are what must be the most physically prepared and emotionally draining performance committed to the big screen.
