Film

Raging Bull

Name: Raging Bull
Genre: Drama, History
Released: 1980
Cast: Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty, Joe Pesci, Frank Vincent, Nicholas Colasanto

Biopic
Very dark

Scorsese's black-and-white study of Jake LaMotta isn't really a boxing film — the ring scenes are just where the violence briefly has rules. De Niro's performance (and famous physical transformation) anchors a portrait of jealousy, paranoia and self-loathing that curdles everything LaMotta touches outside the ropes. Brutal, claustrophobic, and one of the great American films about a man who cannot stop punching, even when there's no one left to hit.

TMDb rating

3.9

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you are drawn to portraits of self-destruction where the craft is so precise that the fights feel like physical punishment, and you don't need the story to be likeable to be gripped.

Skip it if you want a sports film with a clear arc of training and triumph, since the ring is only one stretch of a bleak, angry life and the mood stays heavy throughout.

What it asks of you: Settle in for over two hours of unrelenting intensity, with long stretches of talk, jealousy and rage that build slowly before the boxing ever gets loud.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

GoodFellas1990

Scorsese, De Niro and Pesci reunite for a different flavour of self-destruction — charisma and appetite instead of rage, but the same fascination with men who ruin themselves in slow motion.

But Faster, funnier, more openly entertaining — if you wanted Raging Bull's austerity, this can feel almost too much fun.

On the Waterfront1954

Brando's ex-boxer wrestling with corruption and conscience is the film LaMotta's world is built on top of — same docks-and-fists milieu, same interest in a body that's been used up by other men's ambitions.

But Studio-era pacing and moralising will feel gentler and more theatrical than Scorsese's rawer approach.

The Fighter2010

A real-life boxing story where the fights outside the ring — with a chaotic family instead of a wife — are just as damaging as anything that happens under the lights.

But Warmer and more crowd-pleasing than LaMotta's story; it wants you to root for someone, which isn't really Raging Bull's game.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Raging Bull

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

O.J.: Made in America2016

Same core question as Raging Bull — what happens when a man's physical dominance in public becomes possessiveness and violence in private — but told as unadorned history rather than myth.

A five-part documentary about a celebrated athlete whose jealousy, temper and need for control metastasise into catastrophe — real footage instead of recreation, and no director softening any of it.

But It's nearly eight hours long and deals with real, documented violence — a much heavier, less contained experience than watching a fictional film.

Taxi Driver1976

De Niro and Scorsese again, four years earlier, building another man whose violence is really just loneliness with nowhere else to go. Essential companion viewing.

But Travis Bickle is even less companionable than Jake LaMotta — expect no ring, no sport, no release valve at all.

Rocky1976

Made the same era, same sport, opposite temperature — a working-class underdog story that believes boxing can redeem a man rather than expose him.

But Openly sentimental and triumphant where Raging Bull refuses you any comfort; a real tonal 180.

The Wrestler2008

Mickey Rourke as an aging performer whose body has become a record of everything he's done to it — a spiritual cousin to LaMotta's later, ruined years.

But Quieter and sadder than angry; less interested in explosive violence than in slow, grinding decline.

Million Dollar Baby2004

Eastwood's boxing drama trades LaMotta's machismo for something starker and more tender, but it's just as unflinching about what the sport costs its people.

But A late narrative turn changes the film entirely — go in knowing it's not really a sports movie by the end.

Warrior2011

MMA instead of boxing, brothers instead of a marriage, but the same wiring: family damage translated directly into violence, with genuinely brutal fight choreography.

But More conventional sports-movie structure and a much more hopeful ending than Raging Bull ever offers.

Cinderella Man2005

Same Depression-era boxing world, same interest in a fighter's body as his only asset — but told as a story of decency holding under pressure rather than falling apart.

But Its warmth and clear moral compass are almost the inverse of what makes Raging Bull so unsettling.

A Woman Under the Influence1974

Strips away the sport entirely and gets straight to Raging Bull's real subject: what an ungovernable temperament does to the people who love the person having it.

Cassavetes' raw, handheld portrait of a marriage collapsing under one partner's volatility — shot with the same nervy intimacy that makes LaMotta's home scenes so hard to watch.

But No boxing, no plot momentum in the conventional sense — it's improvisational, exhausting, and asks you to sit inside discomfort rather than resolve it.

Body and Soul1947

The direct visual ancestor of Raging Bull's boxing sequences, and an earlier attempt at the same idea: the ring as a place where a man's corruption becomes visible.

A boxing noir shot with handheld cameras inside the ring years before it was fashionable — Scorsese and cinematographer Michael Chapman studied exactly this film while planning Raging Bull's fight scenes.

But Its moral message is more explicit and its ending more redemptive — post-war Hollywood conscience rather than 1980s nihilism.