Raging Bull

Raging Bull is a 1980 American biographical sports drama film directed by Martin Scorsese from a screenplay by Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin, which adapts Jake LaMotta's 1970 memoir Raging Bull: My Story. Robert De Niro stars as LaMotta, a former middleweight boxing champion whose turbulent personal life is beset by rage and jealousy. Scorsese dedicated the film to Armenian-American NYU film professor Haig P. Manoogian. The supporting cast includes Joe Pesci, Cathy Moriarty, Theresa Saldana, Frank Vincent and Nicholas Colasanto (in his final film role).

Scorsese was initially reluctant to develop the project, although he eventually came to relate with LaMotta's story. Schrader rewrote Martin's first screenplay, and Scorsese and De Niro together made uncredited contributions thereafter. Pesci was a relatively unknown actor prior to the film, as was Moriarty, whom Pesci recommended. During principal photography, each of the boxing scenes was choreographed for a specific visual style, and De Niro gained approximately 60 pounds (27 kg) to portray LaMotta in his later years. Scorsese was exacting in the process of editing and mixing the film, expecting it to be his last major feature.