Raging Bull (1980)

Starring Robert De Niro as the middleweight boxer Jake La Motta, Martin Scorsese’s biopic is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest films of the 1980s.

Martin Scorsese’s biographical portrait of the 1940s boxing champion Jake La Motta is a study of seething male aggression to rank alongside his 1976 film Taxi Driver. Adapted from La Motta’s memoirs by Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin, the film opens in the early 1960s with an overweight La Motta practising his post-boxing cabaret routine. Through flashbacks we witness the dramas of his time in the ring, his abusive marriages, and his turbulent relationship with his brother and manager Joey (Joe Pesci).

The sequences between the ropes are extraordinarily immediate, with Michael Chapman’s mobile black and white cinematography closely attending every blow, and Thelma Schoonmaker’s editing brutally precise and dynamic. Robert De Niro famously gained weight to play the out of shape La Motta of later years.

1980 USA
Directed by
Martin Scorsese
Produced by
Irwin Winkler, Robert Chartoff, Peter Savage
Written by
Paul Schrader, Mardik Martin
Featuring
Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Cathy Moriarty
Running time
129 minutes

Ranked in The Greatest Films of All Time poll

Sight and Sound

Who voted for Raging Bull

Critics

Oris Aigbokhaevbolo
Nigeria
Peter Bradshaw
UK
Alonso Díaz de la Vega
Mexico
Amir Emary
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Ian Freer
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Rōgan Graham
UK
James Harrison
UK
Sean Hogan
UK
Kent Jones
USA
Sascha Keilholz
Germany
Richard Koszarski
USA
Roberto Manassero
Italy
Jamie McLeish
UK
Robert Mitchell
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Andrew Mohsen
Egypt
Andrew Pulver
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Samantha Sheppard
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Leigh Singer
UK
Gavin Smith
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Kate Stables
UK
Brian Tallerico
USA
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UK
Janusz Wróblewski
Poland

Directors

Ari Aster
USA
Richard Ayoade
UK
Faouzi Bensaïdi
Morocco
Kenneth Branagh
UK
Sean Durkin
USA
Asghar Farhadi
Iran
Abel Ferrara
USA
James Gray
Michel Hazanavicius
France
Bong Joon-ho
Asif Kapadia
UK
Anurag Kashyap
India
Justin Kurzel
Australia
Stanley Kwan
Hong Kong
Michael Mann
USA
Brett Morgen
USA
Charles Newland
UK
C.J. "Fiery" Obasi
Nigeria
Ruben Östlund
Sweden
Mani Ratnam
India
Oliver Stone
USA
Peter Strickland
UK
Theodore Witcher
USA

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