This is the story of Jake La Motta and it's an interesting one. La Motta was a champion boxer during the 50's who came from New York. He was profane, paranoid and could take an amazing amount of punishment. And when I say paranoid, I'm not kidding. He picks fights with can't win questions where he won't accept straight answers as straight answers.
Robert DeNiro plays him in one of his best performances. The film covers several decades and DeNiro undergoes an enormous transformation to act this out. Early in the movie he's cut and looks the part of a boxer. Many times during his career he has to worry about his fighting weight and you can see that he stops fighting after when he hangs up the gloves. The later part of the movie shows him very fat. DeNiro put on some 50 lbs to play this role.
This is a Scorsese film and it shows. It's gritty and obscene and very well done. It's shot in black and white and that makes it stand out. The only quibble I have with the movie is the mental transformation that La Motta makes later in life. The anger and paranoia fade and he does some work doing stand up for night clubs. The change seems to a little too extreme. Still a very good movie.
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