Raging Bull (1980)

Martin Scorsese directs Robert De Niro again. This time, De Niro plays real-life boxer Jake LaMotta in an adaptation of the latter’s 1970 memoir. It works as a biopic, tracing his career and personal life from the early 1940s to the mid-1960s. 

It’s beautifully shot in black and white. 

Joe Pesci is superb as LaMotta’s brother and trainer. Brilliantly, we never find out whether he’s having an affair with the boxer’s wife (Cathy Moriarty) or whether this is merely LaMotta’s jealousy and paranoia.

It’s brutally violent and every one of those punches looks like it really hurts. It’s excellently shot, in that sense. Being totally “method” about it, De Niro famously gained weight to depict LaMotta in his later years.