In 1980, Martin Scorsese released his film “Raging Bull” which is about boxer Jake La Motta (Robert De Niro), but the film focuses on La Motta’s life outside the ring, a life of jealousy, cruelty, abuse and insecurity. His life in the ring serves as a release from his sins, almost as a confession.

A common reccuring theme in Scorsese’s films is for his characters to lack trust and compassion for women; this is most evident in “Raging Bull”. The majority of this story revolves around the relationship between La Motta and his much younger wife Vickie (Cathy Moriarty), their relationship is obsessive and untrustworthy. Vickie makes a remark about how La Motta’s next competitor is an ‘attractive guy’. This comment sends La Motta into a whirl-wind of jealousy which quickly turns into abuse towards Vickie and Joey (Joe Pesci) La Motta’s brother and trainer.

This is my favorite movie of all time, and I chose to do a review on this movie because I think De Niro gives the finest example of acting in the history of film, but that performance wouldn’t be possible without the amazing directing by Martin Scorsese. This was Scorsese and De Niro’s fourth collaboration together and they have gone on to collaborate five more times and counting, but no other film has been more compelling than “Raging Bull.”

Yes, “Raging Bull” is a movie about boxing but the reason it stands out amongst other similar films such as – “Rocky” (1976), “The Champ” (1979) and “Rocky II” (1979) – is because it tells a story of a man’s insecurities, his weakness and his faults. “Raging Bull” brought a whole new dynamic to the sports genre of film and it has yet to be matched ever since.

La Motta was a boxer known for never going down in a fight, there are moments in this film where La Motta is at his breaking point where he should be done, but he allows himself to endure the pain he is in, because it’s too hard to make it stop. His pain became the driving force of his life, which is what happens when you choose power over love, and when a man lives a life of power he will end up alone.