Sightlines · reception
How Raging Bull was received
1980 · Martin Scorsese · Raging Bull on Sightlines
The arc
Divided critics and underwhelmed at the box office in 1980 — many found it brutal and cold — but within a decade critics' polls were crowning it the best American film of the 80s, and it's now bedrock canon.
What’s debated
The perennial fight: is this Scorsese's true masterpiece over Goodfellas and Taxi Driver, or a film you admire more than you actually enjoy?
Its footprint
De Niro's ~60-pound weight gain is still the yardstick every 'method transformation' gets measured against, and its Best Picture loss to Ordinary People is a permanent fixture on 'biggest Oscar mistakes' lists.
Where it stands
A 'you must have seen this' pillar — top-tier on AFI and Sight & Sound lists, and the default answer when cinephiles argue about the greatest American film of its decade.
Did you know? Scorsese, recovering from a near-fatal health collapse in 1978, initially didn't want to make a boxing movie at all — De Niro, who'd been pushing the LaMotta book for years, essentially talked him into it at his hospital bedside.
Named by the director
- Michael Powell — Scorsese has often recounted that his mentor Powell pointed out the red boxing gloves looked wrong in early color footage, feeding the decision to shoot in black and white.