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

Director: Martin Scorsese

Summary: RAGING BULL charts the rise and fall of boxer Jake La Motta (Robert De Niro, who won an Oscar for the role), also known as the Bronx Bull, both inside the ring and through the turbulent relationships with his young wife (Cathy Moriarty) and brother (Joe Pesci), Director Martin Scorsese's film stands as a modern masterpiece and has been acclaimed as the greatest sports film ever made.

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 Robert De Niro, in an Oscar-winning performance. 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 neighbourhood. 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 realises that he is unable to tame his animalistic brother.


Scorsese and cinematographer Michael Chapman shoot the film with a stylish flair that fills the boxing scenes with boundless energy and adds immediacy to the endless arguments that erupt whenever Jake is outside the ring. Coupled with Thelma Schoonmaker's breakneck editing and the film's audacious sound design, said scenes are the most brutally realistic depiction of the sport the cinema has ever seen. Simply put, RAGING BULL is one of American cinema's masterworks.

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The high-point in the long fruitful partnership of Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro, and widely reckoned one of the finest films of the 1980s, Raging Bullstill looks like a contender. Based on the ghosted autobiography of 1940s boxing champion Jake La Motta, it's the most searing, intense and often painful to watch of Scorsese's explorations into the nature of masculinity and macho values. The rise of La Motta, the taut, cocky young fighting machine from the Bronx, is bookended by the scenes in which, as a paunchy, bloated has-been 20 years later, he's reduced to acting out self-pitying monologues in a tawdry Manhattan nightclub. The film is shot in crystalline black-and-white, masterfully framed and lit by Michael Chapman, partly as passionate movie-buff Scorsese's response to the way in which classic colour films were at this time being allowed to deteriorate into pinky-mauve travesties of their original rich tones.

Making their starring debuts, Joe Pesci as La Motta's long-suffering brother and manager, and Cathy Moriarty as his delicate-featured, abused child-wife, both grab their opportunities with both hands. But the film's dominated from the outset by De Niro's tour de forceperformance as the brutal, hair-triggered La Motta, viciously lashing out at the world in self-destructive fury. De Niro, who had first suggested the project to Scorsese back in 1973, threw himself into the role with near-demented dedication, submitting to a full year's punishing training programme to gain a boxer's physique and fighting skills--then taking two months off in Europe to stuff himself relentlessly till he had gained 60 lbs to play the slobbish, washed-up ex-champ. It's a performance of scary believability that makes you realise how casually, these days, the actor is coasting through his later career. Raging Bullwas nominated for eight Oscars and picked up two, one for De Niro, and one for Thelma Schoonmaker's editing.

On the DVD:not much, just the original trailer, and a brief promo for some of MGM's other DVD releases. There's some useful production info in the printed booklet enclosed in the box, but couldn't they have got Marty to say a few words? The images look stunning in their original widescreen (1.85:1) ratio, but neither the Dolby Digital sound nor the print seems to have been remastered. Such a major re-release deserved a little more effort. --Philip Kemp

Aspect Ratio:	1.85 Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Making Of Booklet, Chapter Search, Original Theatrical Trailer
Subtitles:	Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
Year:	1980
Release Date:	November 27, 2000
Runtime:	124 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	16212 C D V D
Keywords:	Bull, General, Edition, Wide, Screen, Postcards, Raging, Anniversary, 20th, Drama, Booklet
Genre:	Drama