Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3914 in DVD
• Released on: 2000-11-27
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Black & White, Colour, Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen
• Subtitled in: Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
• Running time: 124 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
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 Bull still 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 force performance 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 Bull was 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

Special Features
1.85 Wide Screen
French\German\Italian\Spanish
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital Surround English\Mono German Spanish French Italian
Dolby Digital Surround
Mono
Booklet Revealing An Insight Into The Making Of The Film
Chapter Search
Original Theatrical Trailer
Danish\Dutch\English\Finnish\French\German\Italian\Norwegian\Portuguese\Spanish\Swedish

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, 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 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. Simply put, RAGING BULL is one of American cinema's masterworks.

Customer Reviews

The greatest film ever
I believe its impossible to write a review for this film,it is quite simply the darkest, saddest and most beautiful film ever made. De niros performance is the greatset ever in the history of cinema, This film is only critisied by "normal" people, But i sympathise with La Motta all the way through. The infamous scene in the jail cell screaming "WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? they called me an animal, im not animal, in not that bad, im not that bad" Has me on the brink of tears with every viewing.
Sometimes its good to wallow in depression, and this film takes you to places you dont wanna go. If your shallow and enjoy rubbish teen comedys and cliched movies with everything there soley to entertain, Then dont step into La Mottas, scorcesses and De niro dark world of Raging Bull...

Superbly Acted and Directed, but Often Shocking
This is yet another incredibly convincing performance from Robert Deniro, all the more impressive considering he is playing such an utterly horrible human being.

This film takes the viewer through some of the most turbulent years of the career of Jake La Motta, the famous boxer.

It's just as well that Deniro's acting and Scorcese's directing are of such a high calibre, because Jake La Motta himself was a thoroughly unpleasant man who cheated on his first wife, seduced a fifteen year old girl, went on to marry that fifteen year old girl and the proceeded to knock her about incessantly. He also neglected his career and ended up, as his wife called him, 'a fat pig'.

Scarily, Deniro acts this part with aplomb, and Scorcese's direction gives the usual gritty Taxi Driver/Mean Streets quality. Everything here is shot in black and white, including the fight scenes, which are so powerful they defy belief. At one point during a fight, blood splatters several spectators across the face. This may or may not be there for dramatic embellishment, but it's a powerful effect just the same.

Difficult though it was for me to like Jake La Motta as a person, this film is absolutely worth seeing for the wonderful acting of Robert Deniro, in one of his classic roles.

Example of Brilliant Method Acting
Scorsese is on top form - the use of black and white any have been a quality issue, but he uses it well. The fight scenes are other worldly - exaggerated to the extent that it is breathtaking and more shocking than previous boxing scenes in other movies. My favourite effect is the sound editing in the fights where silence and calm seem to descend just before key moments.....amazing. The relationship stuff is also gripping and Scorsese handles he human cost just as well as he shows us the physical beatings.

De Niro is amazing - the method stuff alone is great, but his whole performance is intense. Similarly Moriaty, Pesci and Frank Vincent are excellent - however they all stand in De Niro's shadow.

Overall - an excellent film on so many levels, as a story, as a examination of masculinity, as a sports film, as a lesson in direction and editing.....this excels in so many ways - may it never drop out of the top ten from the twentieth century!