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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Raging Bull
United Artists


8.6

based on 14 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 40 votes
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FILM:

TV:

No Direction Home: Bob Dylan

Internet Movie Database

MPAA RATING: R

Starring Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty, Joe Pesci, Frank Vincent, Nicholas Colasanto, Theresa Saldana, Mario Gallo, and Frank Adonis

Scorcese recounts the gritty life self-destructive boxer Jake LaMotta (De Niro) who never backs down from a fight on his way to a middleweight title shot.

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Jake LaMotta (book) Joseph Carter & Peter Savage (book) Paul Schrader Mardik Martin
DIRECTED BY:	Martin Scorsese
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: February 8, 2005 Video: May 7, 1996 Theatrical: November 14, 1980
RUNNING TIME:	129 minutes, Color & B / W
ORIGIN:	USA

The film was nomiated for eight Oscars, including Best Picture. Robert DeNiro won the 1981 Academy award for Best Actor.

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The most painful and heartrending portrait of jealousy in the cinema--an "Othello'' for our times.

100

Chicago Tribune Gene Siskel

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]

100

Entertainment Weekly Steve Daly

Another harsh character study, with poignant echoes of "Taxi Driver."

100

Los Angeles Times Sheila Benson

One of the bloodiest and most beautiful reflections on atonement in the Scorsese canon... It is still one of cinema's most breathtaking films.

100

The New York Times Vincent Canby

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.

100

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Takes a cold, unflinching look at the violence both inside and outside of the ring.

100

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

A fiercely poetic study of violence. Stunningly shot in black-and-white. [14 Dec 1989, p.23]

100

TV Guide Staff (Not Credited)

One of the most powerful boxing films ever made.

100

Austin Chronicle Michael Bertin

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.

100

Boston Globe Ty Burr

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.

Village Voice Amy Taubin

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.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jay Scott

The intensity of the film verges on the intolerable.

Variety Staff (Not Credited)

But the boxing sequences are possibly the best ever filmed, and the film captures the intensity of a boxer's life with considerable force.

Chicago Reader Dave Kehr

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.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 40 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

othostice gave it a10:
I lived in Chicago when Kehr was the critic for the Reader. He hated EVERYTHING that wasn't subtitled. What a pretentious little twit. Where is he now? Blogging and writing a column on DVDs for the NYT. If you hate the classics, no one takes you seriously after a while.

Mike gave it a1:
I liked the beginning, but then it became soooo boring!! I bought the movie because I "heard" it was soooo great. What a waste!

Tim J gave it a10:
Just brilliant. One of my favorites. I also love the critical comments from Dave Kehr of the Chicago Reader. You have to wonder at some point if he questions his taste.

Moses R. gave it a10:
The greatest biopic of all times....the portrayal of Jake La Motta could not have been done by anyone besides De Niro.

Andrew H. gave it a10:
Required viewing for anyone who likes movies.

Mr. Hankey gave it a10:
This goes as one of Scorcese's classics along with Taxi Driver. Yes it is violent in a boxing way and an abusive way but still you will find superb directing and one of the best performances Deniro has ever given to the screen. Deniro does a fine job of playing Jake LaMotta because he really captures LaMotta as a jealous and as I said before abusive man. By the end of the movie you realize that you may have sat through one of the greatest 80's movies of all time.

Matt H. gave it a10:
Martin Scorsese's ultimate masterpiece. Quite simply the greatest American film ever made, featuring the greatest performance in the history of cinema.

Raging Bull United Artists

Raging Bull
United Artists