What is your favorite movie?

One of my favorite movies of all time…Robert De Niro’s performance in Raging Bull is, to me, his greatest performance ever and the grestest perfromance ever in a movie.

I was 13 when I saw Raging Bull and I expected something along the lines of Rocky…boy was my expectations way off base. However, even at the age of 13 I just knew that this may be one of the greatest films ever. Initially I was shellshocked by Deniro’s portrayal of a truly insecure and repugnant man. Then over the years I came to realize what a truly beautifully acted, directed and filmed movie it is. The fight scenes are truly astonishing ( I could swear I heard animal noises dubbed into some of the fight scenes) and the television scene between Deniro and Pesci may be the best I’ve ever seen. Deniro and Pesci at their best, Scorcese at his usual best, and you cant go wrong with Thelma Shoonmaker in the editing room. What a film!

My third cousin is in this movie. No joke. It’s Cathy Moriarty. She plays Vickie in Raging Bull. She’s, uh, Jake LaMotta’s wife in the movie. She married my grandmother’s nephew, technically my mom’s second cousin. So, I love this movie because of that. Oh, yeah, and I met her many times. She’s really nice.

Although The Godfather is one of my favorites, I have to go with Raging Bull because of the brilliant acting, direction, editing and cinematography. The film is a true masterpiece and probably Scorsese, De Niro and Pesci’s best. It is a revolutionary film, where De Niro and Scorsese took so many unprecedented risks and emerged with brilliant style. In my opinion the film has been such a milestone as far as film-making and acting goes, that it deserves to be considered the best.

The Best American Film ever made!.
Sorry “Godfather” and “Kane”.
The raw intensity,brutality,and exhiliration is unrivaled in American cinema.
It’s like an old Hollywood classic mixed with a Fellini work.
Scorsese’s Masterpeice and DeNiro’s too!.
Unfortunately, no matter what they do “Bull” is the Template they will be remembered and measured by forever.
Even today in film schools everywhere this seminal opus is dissected
ad naseum.
We get not only the Best Acting(DeNiro) I have ever seen,but Direction(Scorsese) as well.
The cinematography,editing,and writing are unrivaled.
Did I mention it has Joe Pesci too!.
It’s uncompromising real life story with stark images and dialogue that pushed the envelope then,and is relevent today,still matters.
It also change the way Biopics would forever be made.
I have never seen a better film and probably will not!
Matty P.

My favorite film would have to be Martin Scorsese’s “Raging Bull.” It is easily one of the greatest sports-related films of all-time, as well as being the greatest film of the 1980’s. The cinematography is un-matched, and the stark realism of the disintegration of LaMotta as an individual is one the grittiest, most violent stories ever brought to film.

You can’t help but be affected and moved by this tale of one man’s search for redemption. If you haven’t seen it, it is an absolute must.

De Niro’s Best; Scorsese’s best; the best film of the ’80’s; the best film ever made!

The film gets into the mind of Jake Lamotta. Everything De Niro does in this film is incredible. Never in the history of film has any actor given a more honest, and truthful performance. De Niro morphs into Lamotta, and not just by gaining weight, but learning how to breathe and think like Jake Lamatto. His journey is heartbreaking, and yet oddly inspiring. Scorsese doesn’t use voice over to get you into Jake’s head, he know’s De Niro can do it for him. The brutality of the boxing scenes carries a mythic, visceral sense of reality. This movie isn’t for the light weights, it’s heavy material, it asks you to care for a horrible human being, and by some miracle, you do! Raging Bull is not just my favorite movie of all time, I would indeed call it the best film ever made!
By: Stephen Wagner

A dual thematic biopic of boxer Jake LaMotta and director Martin Scorsese.

This is the movie that opened my eyes to the possibilities of film. The acting is the best in any ever movie ever, the cinematography is haunting, the use of sound imagery laid beneath the soundtrack during the boxing scenes is sublime. It is powerful, funny, touching, risible and pure genius.
By: Timothy Sexton

I wasn’t that impressed by it the first time I saw it. It took a few viewings for me to fully appreciate it.

It has everything I look for in a movie…great visuals, music, and acting, and direction.
By: Cole Biodrowski

Raging Bull will always be the crown jewel of film history to me.

Raging Bull will always be the crown jewel of film history to me. Everything about this movie absolutely sweats. The directing is astounding and although Scorsese would go on to direct many more impressive pieces of film, this has been his greatest achievment. There has never been a boxing movie before or since that made you feel as part of the fight as this, the ways the camera is placed inside the ring with the fighters, the shots of the audience being sprayed with blood, the sound going from loud and abrasive, (hearing bones crunch and leather slap skin) to muffled and distant, as I’m sure it does with boxers in the ring, and the most impressive, Scorsese holding flames under the camera during LaMotta’s most difficult fight, to create the illusion that we are in some kind of hell with this character.
The performances are the best these actor’s will give in their careers, which is saying alot, the editing by Thelma is brilliant and the script is flawless, not a word of ‘filler’.
I could go on and on, but I’ll close with this:
Raging Bull is amoung the few movies that, aside from its technological accomplishments, can evoke a plathora of emotions in me in a single viewing, all along with the characters as they feel them, anger, laughter, fear, suspense, loyalty, betrayal, embarrassment, satisfaction, and regret, are but a few.
If I was to be trapped on a desert island for the rest of my life and was allowed one film, this would be it, that way I won’t ever forget how to feel…anything.
By: Dustin Griffin