“Lives up to the hype: Scorsese’s direction really is that kinetically brilliant. He shoots his antihero in truly gorgeous blackand- white, using a camera that seems, at times, to be remarkably lucid, as if on Ecstasy.”
– Michael Friedson, Time Out New York

“A master class in pain inflicted on oneself and one’s loved ones, as well as one’s opponents. The use of pop and opera and the black-andwhite photography are exemplary, the actual boxing a compulsive dance of death.”
– Ben Walters, Time Out (London)

“From the first shot of a nearly disembodied De Niro, alone in the ring, jogging in slow-mo, his face obscured by the hood of his robe, like a monk in Rossellini’s The Flowers of St. Francis, you know that for Scorsese, this is the big one, the title fight, and it’s only art that’s at stake. The sense of risk is palpable and the payoff is exhilarating... A fusion of Hollywood genre with personal vision couched in images and sounds that are kinetic and visceral, and closer to poetry than pulp. Its sculptural weight can only be appreciated on the big screen.”
– Amy Taubin, The Village Voice

“About a man with paralyzing jealousy and sexual insecurity. . . the most painful and heartrending portrait of jealousy in the cinema.”
– Roger Ebert

(1980) De Niro’s Jake La Motta never hits the canvas, but his out-of–the-ring battles with wife Cathy Moriarty and brother Joe Pesci are a war of attrition with no winners. Scorsese’s profanity-packed blowtorch boxing biopic of the middleweight legend has consistently topped critics’ Best of the Decade lists, while winning a Best Actor Oscar for De Niro’s tour de force (and the first of a record three for film editor Thelma Schoonmaker). De Niro trained with the real La Motta for a year (by the end, La Motta ranked him “in the first top twenty middleweights”), won two out of three actual matches, broke Pesci’s rib in their sparring scenes, then packed on fifty pounds during a four-month shooting hiatus to play the bloated years. (The vivid fight scenes, only minutes on screen, took six weeks to shoot, the sound of punches landing supplied by squashing melons and tomatoes, the blood by Hershey’s chocolate: see Psycho, playing Friday, October 29 – Thursday, November 4.) Supporting nominee Pesci was managing a restaurant when De Niro suggested him for the role; then Pesci suggested teenage model/acting neophyte — and eventual fellow nominee — Moriarty as the wife. Michael Chapman’s shimmering b&w spotlights Scorsese’s seemingly effortless evocation of place and time — an era of flashbulbs, big cars, hats, and no air conditioning.

Links:

• Directory site with information and multimedia content.
• German Site: www.zelluloid.de infos: Wie ein wilder Stier
• RAGING BULL Trailer

Selections from Amazon.com:

Martin Scorsese by Andy Dougan

A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through American Movies

From Peepshow to Palace by David Robinson, Martin Scorsese

(Not Shown) Martin Scorsese: Interviews (Interviews With Filmmakers Series) by Martin Scorsese, Peter Brunette (Editor) (Not Shown) The Cinema of Martin Scorsese by Lawrence S. Friedman