Movies Robert De Niro acting performance in Raging Bull

[Takes Two To Tango]

The most raw, animalistic, pure acting I've ever seen.

Not only it's De Niro best performance.

It could very well be the best of all-time.

And this coming from a guy who loved John Hurt in The Elephant Man. Both were deserving to win an Oscar that year. Unfortunately only one had to win.

I remember reading that after watching the film, Dustin Hoffman started sobbing.

He was overwhelmed by his performance thought it was best he's ever seen.

 

[Tone C]

Nope , I don't think you've taken into account Sofia Coppola in The Godfather 3 .

 

[Takes Two To Tango]

Nope , I don't think you've taken into account Sofia Coppola in The Godfather 3 .

She's a decent director though.

 

[GoodBadHBK]

Nope , I don't think you've taken into account Sofia Coppola in The Godfather 3 .

She was amazing in the first one though

(Shes the baby during the baptism)

 

[Prex32]

DeNiro hardly had any bad performance in his prime

 

[pugilistico]

I know it's a classic but as a boxer, I just couldn't get over how bad the boxing looks. I have a hard time watching boxing movies because of this. The best boxing I've seen in a movie is the Fighter. Marky Mark was convincing since he already boxes, and Bale's punches looked very proficient in the short scene he gets in that fight.

 

[Natural Order]

My favourite performance and what I’d call his best. Edges out Taxi Driver, another masterclass.

 

[Bullitt68]

The GOAT. Whoever you think tops this performance, they don't. Add to his great performance the fact that he initiated this production - he spent years convincing Scorsese to make this film after reading La Motta's autobiography while performing his other Oscar-winning role on The Godfather II - and he and Scorsese rewrote the script together and didn't even take credit for the final version. And then De Niro improvised a bunch on top of that. This is his film to a large degree, and he crushes this performance harder than anyone ever has crushed onscreen and probably ever will crush onscreen. Oh, and he also trained like a madman to where he actually developed decent boxing skill and got super lean to play the champion boxer La Motta AND THEN GAINED 63 POUNDS and got incredibly unhealthy to play the fat retired loser La Motta.

There's De Niro in Raging Bull and then there's everything else. For me, Katharine Hepburn in Alice Adams is my #2 performance of all-time, and she's not a close second. De Niro in Raging Bull is alone atop the acting mountain.

 

[Takes Two To Tango]

The GOAT. Whoever you think tops this performance, they don't. Add to his great performance the fact that he initiated this production - he spent years convincing Scorsese to make this film after reading La Motta's autobiography while performing his other Oscar-winning role on The Godfather II - and he and Scorsese rewrote the script together and didn't even take credit for the final version. And then De Niro improvised a bunch on top of that. This is his film to a large degree, and he crushes this performance harder than anyone ever has crushed onscreen and probably ever will crush onscreen. Oh, and he also trained like a madman to where he actually developed decent boxing skill and got super lean to play the champion boxer La Motta AND THEN GAINED 63 POUNDS and got incredibly unhealthy to play the fat retired loser La Motta.

There's De Niro in Raging Bull and then there's everything else. For me, Katharine Hepburn in Alice Adams is my #2 performance of all-time, and she's not a close second. De Niro in Raging Bull is alone atop the acting mountain.

Very well said.

 

[Sobek]

I know it's a classic but as a boxer, I just couldn't get over how bad the boxing looks. I have a hard time watching boxing movies because of this. The best boxing I've seen in a movie is the Fighter. Marky Mark was convincing since he already boxes, and Bale's punches looked very proficient in the short scene he gets in that fight.

Didn't I read DeNiro had 6 or more amatuer matches in training for that role?

 

[Bullitt68]

Didn't I read DeNiro had 6 or more amatuer matches in training for that role?

I've tried to find substantiation/documentation but it's been elusive. If I had to guess, La Motta had legit boxers around him and had De Niro go some hard rounds with them. Granted, a lot of time and technological evolution separates the late 1970s from today, but boxing has always been a pretty well-documented sport, and if De Niro had legit fights then there'd be a record of the bouts (opponents, dates, locations, etc.).

 

[Osculater]

I know it's a classic but as a boxer, I just couldn't get over how bad the boxing looks. I have a hard time watching boxing movies because of this. The best boxing I've seen in a movie is the Fighter. Marky Mark was convincing since he already boxes, and Bale's punches looked very proficient in the short scene he gets in that fight.

Bale was a legit crackhead in the Fighter

 

[stalehotdog]

She was amazing in the first one though

(Shes the baby during the baptism)

I totally bought her in the role of bat baptized baby. I was riveted

 

[Tone C]

I know it's a classic but as a boxer, I just couldn't get over how bad the boxing looks.

Watch his fight scene in The Irishman....

 

[Sobek]

I've tried to find substantiation/documentation but it's been elusive. If I had to guess, La Motta had legit boxers around him and had De Niro go some hard rounds with them. Granted, a lot of time and technological evolution separates the late 1970s from today, but boxing has always been a pretty well-documented sport, and if De Niro had legit fights then there'd be a record of the bouts (opponents, dates, locations, etc.).

Considering how Hollywood hype and propaganda works this is a pretty good take. He may have used a fake name but he would have had to cram a few fights into a short space of time and although I haven't seen it in years I think I remember thinking he doesn't look like he has had a few amatuer matches.

Most likely that put that out to get people to come and watch the movie.

I too can't stand watching fight movies.

 

[Bullitt68]

Considering how Hollywood hype and propaganda works this is a pretty good take. He may have used a fake name but he would have had to cram a few fights into a short space of time and although I haven't seen it in years I think I remember thinking he doesn't look like he has had a few amatuer matches.

Most likely that put that out to get people to come and watch the movie.

I too can't stand watching fight movies.

It's one thing to get a hack license and drive a cab around New York City before Taxi Driver - and even then, passengers would see the license and recognize De Niro behind the wheel as the guy who just won an Oscar for The Godfather II* - but it's another to fight publicly multiple times against different opponents and in front of multiple crowds in a sanctioned sport. If that really happened, people would've recognized De Niro after Mean Streets, The Godfather II, Taxi Driver, and The Deer Hunter, and it wouldn't still be so impossible to find evidence of the fights to this day. I mean, if we know that Bruce Lee beat a guy named Gary Elms in a 1958 Hong Kong boxing tournament, we should know if/when/who De Niro fought in any real matches in the US in the '70s.

*This is De Niro's actual license:

 

[Sobek]

It's one thing to get a hack license and drive a cab around New York City before Taxi Driver - and even then, passengers would see the license and recognize De Niro behind the wheel as the guy who just won an Oscar for The Godfather II* - but it's another to fight publicly multiple times against different opponents and in front of multiple crowds in a sanctioned sport. If that really happened, people would've recognized De Niro after Mean Streets, The Godfather II, Taxi Driver, and The Deer Hunter, and it wouldn't still be so impossible to find evidence of the fights to this day. I mean, if we know that Bruce Lee beat a guy named Gary Elms in a 1958 Hong Kong boxing tournament, we should know if/when/who De Niro fought in any real matches in the US in the '70s.

*This is De Niro's actual license:

Yep all fair points

 

[HHJ]

Bale was a legit crackhead in the Fighter

He's the only reason to rewatch that movie

 

[Highway99]

Jack Lemmon in anything Billy Wilder directed was better...

 

[Jack Reacheround]

I thought it was nearly perfect - 9

Probably could be a 10 though.