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Movies / On DVD / Raging Bull
Raging Bull

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Raging Bull (1980)

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Reviews Counted:52

Fresh:51

Rotten:1

Average Rating:9/10

Consensus: Arguably Martin Scorsese’s and Robert De Niro’s finest film, Raging Bull is often painful to watch, but it’s a searing, powerful work about an unsympathetic hero.

Rated: 18

Runtime: 2 hrs 12 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:17-08-2007

Synopsis: With RAGING BULL, Martin Scorsese's personal approach to filmmaking is taken to a whole new level. Shooting in a crisp black and white, Scorsese tells the story of middleweight boxer Jake La Motta,... With RAGING BULL, Martin Scorsese's personal approach to filmmaking is taken to a whole new level. Shooting in a crisp black and white, Scorsese tells the story of middleweight boxer Jake La Motta, played with incredible intensity by Oscar winner Robert De Niro. As La Motta rises through the ranks to earn his first shot at the middleweight crown, he falls in love with Vickie (Cathy Moriarty), a gorgeous girl from his Bronx neighborhood. Jake's inability to express his feelings pours out in the ring and eventually takes over his life in his dealings with his brother, Joey (a brilliant Joe Pesci). Irrational jealousy over Vickie, as well as an insatiable appetite, sends him into a downward spiral that costs him his title, his wife, and his relationship with Joey. As the out-of-control fighter, De Niro delivers one of the screen's most unforgettable performances. Pesci is just as intense as Joey, who finally realizes that he is unable to tame his animalistic brother. Cinematographer Michael Chapman shoots the film with a stylish flair that fills the boxing scenes with boundless energy and adds immediacy to the arguments that erupt whenever Jake is outside the ring. Simply put, RAGING BULL is one of American cinema's masterworks. [More]

Starring: Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Cathy Moriarty, Frank Vincent

Starring: Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Cathy Moriarty, Frank Vincent, Nicholas Colasanto, Theresa Saldana, Frank Adonis

Director: Martin Scorsese

Director: Martin Scorsese
Screenwriter: Mardik Martin, Paul Schrader
Story: Jake La Motta, Joseph Carter, Peter Savage
Producer: Irwin Winkler, Robert Chartoff

[See More Credits]

Reviews for Raging Bull

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1 - 20 (sorted by comments; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

Martin Scorsese’s luminous study of a man at war with his own nature remains undimmed after almost 30 years.

Full Review Source: Total Film | comment Comment
08/17/07
Total Film

A classic that has everything to do with the capacity of even highly successful men to cope with life in general, and women in particular.

Full Review Source: This is London | comment Comment
08/17/07
Derek Malcolm
Derek Malcolm
This is London

It is certainly the greatest boxing film ever put to celluloid.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
01/01/00
Ian Nathan
Ian Nathan
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

This film does more than make you think about masculinity, it makes you see it -- in a way that's relevant to all men, not just Bronx boxers.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
02/09/06
Jessica Winter
Jessica Winter
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Widely acclaimed as both the greatest film of the 1980s and of its director, Martin Scorsese, this is one of a select handful of films that everyone should see.

Full Review Source: Edinburgh U Film Society | comment Comment
01/01/00
Keith H. Brown
Keith H. Brown
Edinburgh U Film Society

Every swirling camera movement, every distinctive angle, has a real reason for existing in this story of world middleweight boxing champ Jake La Motta.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
04/17/01
Michael Thomson
Michael Thomson
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

De Niro and Joe Pesci are impeccable and Cathy Moriarty is iconically sexy.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
08/17/07
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

a masterpiece

comment Comment
04/05/05
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

Among the greatest films of the 1980s, but not Scorsese's best.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
08/17/07
Richard Luck
Richard Luck
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

This savagely authentic film about flawed masculinity is worth seeking out for another viewing if the summer’s toothless blockbuster fodder is getting you down.

Full Review Source: Times [UK] | comment Comment
08/17/07
Wendy Ide
Wendy Ide
Times [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Martin Scorsese makes pictures about the kinds of people you wouldn't want to know.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment 41 Comments
03/14/07
Joseph McBride
Joseph McBride
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

I can't pan it, but this 1980 fantasy biography of fighter Jake LaMotta seems unquestionably Martin Scorsese's weakest work, at least to that point in his career.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment 9 Comments
03/14/07
Dave Kehr
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader

Scorsese's masterpiece, that should have won the Oscar, is a haunting pschological study of boxer Jake La Motta and the fine line between animalistic brutality and humanity

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment 2 Comments
06/26/05
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

If you've never seen Raging Bull, it's nowhere near as artwank as you've been led to believe.

Full Review Source: Heckler Spray | comment 1 Comment
07/30/08
Chris Laverty
Chris Laverty
Heckler Spray

De Niro is always absorbing and credible, even when his character isn't.

Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | comment 1 Comment
08/04/08
Richard Corliss
Richard Corliss
TIME Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Often unpleasant and painful to watch, the film is a no-holds-barred look at a violent man in a brutal sport, in which, amazingly, the wholly unsympathetic LaMotta attains a state of grace at the end that is inspiring.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
01/01/00
TV Guide's Movie Guide

The most obvious basis for the film's claim to greatness lies in Scorsese's devastating critique of the very codes of masculinity that shaped him as a filmmaker, and in Robert De Niro's performance, through which that critique is made flesh.

Full Review Source: Village Voice | comment Comment
01/01/00
Amy Taubin
Amy Taubin
Village Voice

No review available.

comment Comment
05/29/04
Andy Klein
Andy Klein
New Times

No review available.

comment Comment
12/01/03
Brian Gibson
Brian Gibson
Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Canada)

No review available.

comment Comment
11/17/03
Bryant Frazer
Bryant Frazer
Bryant Frazer's Deep Focus
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by comments; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 >> >|
all

Latest News for Raging Bull

September 17, 2009: Five Favourite Films with Nick Love
Nick Love isn't known for heart. The film which earned him his "From the director of..." title card, The Football Factory, is nothing if not violent, loud and not particularly... More...

June 22, 2007: AFI Announces Top 100 Movies of All Time ... Again
Ten years ago the AFI gave us a list of the Top 100 American Films Ever Made -- and when that was done they churned out 15 other lists every few years. And then last night they... More...

June 21, 2007: Scorsese & De Niro: Together Again
Do you even have to know the plot? It's the ninth collaboration between Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro. Period. More...

February 26, 2007: How Does "The Departed" Rank Among Oscar's Best?
So Martin Scorsese finally has his long-overdue, much-deserved Oscar. But where does "The Departed" stack up in the annals of Academy history? More...

See All

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