Raging Bull | | Cast : | Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty, Joe Pesci | | Director : | Martin Scorsese | | Studio : | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | | Format : | Black & White, Widescreen | | Released Date : | December 19, 1980 | | DVD Released Date : | February 08, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Dubbed) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 28, 2005 | | Summary | Scorsese's knockout film! A solid five stars! | Content
 | Raging Bull remains to be the best boxing film ever, if you ask me. Martin Scorsese once said "[Robert De Niro] wanted to make this film. Not me. I don't understand anything about boxing. For me, it's like a physical game of chess." The movie is about the contriversial boxing career of Jake LaMotta; the film takes you in to a dark and corrupt world that'll leave you gasping for more. I love the fight scenes in this film, because the camera manages to "stay in the ring" during the fights. Amazingly enough, the ENTIRE film was filmed with ONE camera. The film dives into the life of many mistakes, greed, adultery, and even sorrow. The film was shot in black and white, just to inform you. The only color scenes are the "home movie" scenes. Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci deliver possibly the best performances of their careers in this film. Martin Scorsese does a spectacular job in this film, so it's no wonder why he's considered one of the best directors of our time. This film will definitely be remembered as one of the greatest films of all time. The cinematography by Michael Chapman is simply...breathtaking. The new transfer featured on the recently released Two-Disc Special Edition disc is fascinating. The film literally looks like it was shot yesterday. Overall, I highly recommend this film, even if you aren't a fan of boxing. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 30, 2005 | | Summary | Death Of A Salesman Part 2 | Content
| Being born and brought up in the neighborhood /Bronx, of the movie..I relive my childhood when watching the movie..Jake was great but let his own demons get to him, a message the director is trying to get to us, which makes it a very real movie indeed and something all can learn from.
The movie in my opinion,is a real depiction of delusion and rather than dwell on the manic nature of LaMotta(was he really crazy?)what it really shows is the survival instinct of the man as both a human being and a great boxer/animal needing to survive by self-promotion at any cost,somewhat akin to Polanski's Piano Player.
Great filmmaking is an art, and this is a gripping violent and starkly real movie of the highest order in personality profile.Why couldn't Jake be happy with his life is another story. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 11, 2005 | | Summary | raging bull alright ! | Content
| raging bull**** is more like it ! ! indeed- this movie is full of one of the most over rated movie maker`s( along w the other and really incompetent robert altman who never made one good movie ever except mash !! thats a big except i know-- but never made anything one iota as good as that one ever again !)- but here we have scorsese`s usual bag of growing ever more annoying !tricks---- aggrandizing low lifes & morons w no redeeming qualities----w/ pretentious slo mo shots-- italian opera vainly employed in the service of trying to give the worse than mundane some class--- and its all so amatuerish its embarassing to watch ! -- that a movie so bad-- so stupid so poorly shot and wrought== witless & pointless scenes with dull witless & moronic characters speaking the equally dumb dialogue in such bad broad bronx accents its almost impossible to believe this is scorsese territory-- tho he grew up in the village didnt he ? little italy -- where else ! -- near where de niro grew up i guess-- but little italy which to a nyc person is as far from the bronx as iowa is to little italy well not quite-- but the accents are so broad and over done its actually insulting to the true and beautifully musical cadences of a bronx accent - in jennifer lopez you can still hear it a little- i can listen to her till the cows come home--not sing so much as just hear her talk !! but i tried to watch this raging bull**** movie again recently---but couldnt stand the insipid incompetence on display esp with all the fan fare some critics have heaped on this nonsense--- it was interesting in the early scenes to see how far the raging bull character had descended-- from bronx thug and boxing goon to a fat bloated has been laughing stock lounge jokester meathead who himself was the joke a real pagliacci to scorcese i guess-- the whole thing is ludicrous of course-- with the pretentious black and white film-- ( does scorcese see himself here in the tradition of de sica or fellini ?? two real geniuses who were incapable of making bad movies )----but here alas we have painfully clastrophobic scenes that go nowhere and/or end in the usual violence - slowed down too-- opera trying to add pathos to the abounding mind numbing & relentlous idiocy ---- its only de niro of course that makes it even palatible at all- he is so dedicated and such a brilliant actor you want to believe you are seeing something great --or good at least- which makes it all the more disappointing as scene after scene devolve into nothing but a ridiculous waste of celluloid and talent---shameful and embarassing dialogue dragging it all down -- scene after hapless scene !--- but look in all fairness scorsese hasnt only made bad movies like this -he even made a great movie--- well two actually---goodfellas- brilliant except for the totally miscast mamby pamby boss of paul sorvino who actually tried to turn down the plum role--knowing he couldnt pull it off - he was supposed to be imposing-- he was as imposing as a muffin or a dough boy - his most believable scene a close up of him in jail cutting up garlic for the sauce( assuming they were really his finely manicured nails on display ) !! and alice doesnt live here any more-- a wonderful touching movie - so i respect the guy for those two gems and taxi driver was close to being good it certainly had its moments--mean streets was interesting if also amatuerish but at least it had a freshness back then--the rest its all re hashed but second rate goodfellas stuff ---- enough already aggrandizing these( with all due respect !!!!! ) goom bahs - unless you are david chase or franics ford cappella and have the genius of their perspectives-- but it was truly a revelation how bad this movie is -i couldn`t sit thru it all again - i tried i really did !!! |
| Rating | | | Date | May 24, 2005 | | Summary | Four different movies stitched clumsily together | Content
| I hate to be the heretic here but "Raging Bull" is a confused combination of four conflicting movies - none of which seem complete. 1) The first movie is a sports movie with great photography. It is a sequence of several boxing matches in chronological order. There are even subtitles to let the viewer know what year the match took place. It is well filmed but Scorcese knew that this was hardly a movie that would interest anyone but boxing fans with a long enough memory to recall who Jake LaMotta was so he added movie # 2) This is Scorcese's standard lower class Italian neighborhood film about lust, machismo, violence. Robert Deniro plays - Robert Deniro in his usual psychotic character/acting mode (doesn't DeNiro play the same character in every movie? Sure seems like it). See LaMotta lust after a beautiful woman, see him win the girl, see his temper ruin the relationship, see Deniro go psychotic and start beating up women. Ho-Hum. Let's move on to movie # 3) This is an attempt to portray athletes as olympian gods, complete with slow motion photography, operatic music, wide angle lenses. Leni Reifanstahl did it better in her German olympic films. What is odd here is that this has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the film. Is Lamotta a lowlife wife abuser? A dimwitted athlete? If so, what is the point of the idealizing film techniques? LaMotta is no candidate for deifying, so why all this unecessary trouble? Because it looks good? Maybe, but it has nothing to do with either of the films that have taken place so far. This brings us to film # 4) LaMotta gains weight, loses his family, gets arrested for statutory rape, ends up as a fourth rate entertainer in low class dives. The film ends abruptly and - astoundingly - a verse from scripture appears on the screen that suggests that LaMotta has been redeemed and has insight into his bad behavior. You wouldn't know it from anything that has taken place in the film up to that point. What redemption? What insight? Suddenly, the film wants to be a christian redemption story about an individual soul that turns from its evil ways. Huh? When did that happen? LaMotta didn't do this in the film or in real life, so what film was this the ending to?
What we have here are four different films stitched clumsily together. Scorcese seems unsure what he wants his film to be, so he does all four films and hopes the viewer never notices. I did. Was Scorcese's "Raging Bull" an historical boxing film? A tale about a lower class guy who makes it big but hurts those who love him? An art film about athletes? A religious film?? Who knows? None of the parts gel together well. The result is a well filmed jigsaw puzzle that has parts missing, that doesn't really know what it wants to be. Unsatisfying as a whole; ok in parts. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 16, 2005 | | Summary | One of the best films of the '80s, and a great DVD. | Content
| I recommend purchasing the Martin Scorsese Box Set from MGM, which includes this along with other Scorsese classics. "Raging Bull" is one of the great films of the 1980s and this DVD is an excellent companion piece. Highly recommended. |
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