One of the greatest sports films ever made now streaming on Netflix

If you tuned in to the Anthony Joshua v Jake Paul fight and somehow mistook that for legitimate boxing, get a load of this.

Okay, it isn’t real either, but Martin Scorsese’s film Raging Bull is a visceral, violent tale of the real-life late boxer Jake LaMotta, here played by Robert De Niro, and it’s now on Netflix.

Those are some cinematic names. There’s more, because LaMotta’s brother and manager Joey is played by Joe Pesci, completing the holy Goodfellas trinity and doing so with some gorgeous black-and-white cinematography. 

The film is considered one of the greatest ever made – we’re not just saying that, it’s on the movie’s official Wikipedia page. 

As soon as it was eligible, the film was selected to be included in the US National Film Registry, which is something they only do with the best of the bunch. Alas, other De Niro efforts like Dirty Grandpa have not yet made the cut. 

So what’s it about? We follow LaMotta’s boxing career through the ups and downs as middleweight boxer Bronx Bull.

His furious physicality and determination propel him to success, but outside the ring, his personal relationships – including that with his brother/manager (never mix family and work) – go to tatters. 

Later in life, he moves into a fairly tragic second act as a (you won’t guess this bit) stand-up comedian as well as a nightclub owner. Plus, his marriage goes to pieces.

The film was nominated for a raft of Academy Awards, winning two for Best Editing and for De Niro as Best Actor. 

Raging Bull has been added to the hallowed Criterion Collection of films, which said of it: ‘With this stunningly visceral portrait of self-destructive machismo, Martin Scorsese created one of the truly great and visionary works of modern cinema.

‘A uniquely powerful exploration of violence on multiple levels—physical, emotional, psychic, and spiritual.’

The film also ranked in 22nd place on the Sight and Sound list of the greatest films of all time, according to the directors’ poll.

Raging Bull is available to stream on Netflix.

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