Raging Bull

This is a masterpiece and an amazing character study of Jake LaMotta. It’s very understandable why it’s considered De Niro’s best role. It’s primarily a movie about a boxer and his descent in every aspect of life. The ring is his escape, and as seen after retirement, the lack of it causes everything to collapse. His wife leaves him, his children leave him, he goes to jail, and all he does in that jail is punch his anger out by himself. LaMotta is a possessive man first and foremost. Everything must be under his control. He’s a proud man too. Vickie doing too much, according to him, is defiance of his authority. It attacks his pride, so he lashes out. He beats her. A kiss on the cheek is adultery to him because it removes her from his possession. His pride is only a façade, as he’s deeply insecure when it comes to Vickie. He believes his brother had sex with his wife, and based on nothing more than suspicion, he lashes out. LaMotta in the ring is a devil. He’s an animal. He’s a killer. He lashes out in the ring, where he’s a winner, the middleweight champion of the world. Yet, in my favorite scene from the film, LaMotta gets the ever-loving shit beaten out of him by Sugar Ray Robinson in their championship fight. He should be down, but he doesn’t go down, and his pride latches onto that. He walks up to Ray and says, “You never knocked me down.” LaMotta doesn’t even look like himself anymore, yet he clings to that because the only thing he truly controls is his pride.