Metascore
92 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 14 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 14
  2. Negative: 0 out of 14
  1. Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    100
    The film that many consider the finest of its decade, Raging Bull, has aged well, and not just because it was filmed in black and white.
  2. 100
    A fiercely poetic study of violence. Stunningly shot in black-and-white. [14 Dec 1989, p.23]
  3. 100
    The most painful and heartrending portrait of jealousy in the cinema--an "Othello'' for our times.
  4. 100
    Filmed in black-and-white and shockingly well acted by De Niro, Raging Bull suggests that if you are looking for the source of evil in the world, you don't have to look any further than yourself. It's inside you or it isn't. And it comes out or it doesn't. [19 Dec 1980]
  5. 100
    Takes a cold, unflinching look at the violence both inside and outside of the ring.
  6. Reviewed by: Staff (Not Credited)
    100
    One of the most powerful boxing films ever made.
  7. Reviewed by: Michael Bertin
    100
    The performances are riveting and the visuals are stunning. The boxing sequences are brutally realistic - there are no crappy Rocky theatrics here - and the humanity oozes out of every scene.
  8. Reviewed by: Steve Daly
    100
    Another harsh character study, with poignant echoes of "Taxi Driver."
  9. 100
    One of the bloodiest and most beautiful reflections on atonement in the Scorsese canon... It is still one of cinema's most breathtaking films.
  10. The entire film is played at such high pitch it may well exhaust audiences that don't come prepared. And, at the heart of the film, there is the mystery of Jake himself, but that is what separates Raging Bull from all other fight movies, in fact, from most movies about anything. Raging Bull is an achievement.
  11. 90
    What's most stunning about Raging Bull is the tension between 19th-century melodrama and 20th-century psychodrama, the narrative form brought into being by the conjunction of Freudian theory and the mechanics of the movie camera.
  12. The intensity of the film verges on the intolerable.
  13. Reviewed by: Staff (Not Credited)
    70
    But the boxing sequences are possibly the best ever filmed, and the film captures the intensity of a boxer's life with considerable force.
  14. 40
    As LaMotta, Robert De Niro gives a blank, soulless performance; there's so little of depth or urgency coming from him that he's impossible to despise, or forgive, in any but the most superficial way.
User Score

Universal acclaim- based on 94 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 29 out of 34
  2. Negative: 4 out of 34
  1. One of the all time greatest movies. I can't find a goddamn thing that's wrong with this. I'll say that this is better than "Goodfellas" or "Taxi Driver" Full Review »
  2. Yet another vastly overrated "classic". The whole time Lamotta is just being a meathead with a terrible temper. I'm a huge De Niro and Scorsese fan (Goodfellas, Casino), and that's why I gave it the 3, but I just don't get why people overhype this film so much? I will say this though, De Niro does a great job of making you hate Lamotta. Full Review »
  3. Mike
    1
    I liked the beginning, but then it became soooo boring!! I bought the movie because I "heard" it was soooo great. What a waste!