Robert De Niro’s intense portrayal of middleweight boxer Jake ‘The Bronx Bull’ LaMotta earned him his second Oscar® and marked the zenith in his collaboration with director Martin Scorsese; delivering with shuddering effect a pummeling assault on the senses and arguably the greatest sports film ever made.

When Jake LaMotta steps into a boxing ring and obliterates his opponent, he's a prizefighter. But when he treats his family and friends the same way, he's a ticking time bomb, ready to go off at any moment. For LaMotta is a man whose psychological and sexual complexities can erupt into shocking violence both in and out of the ring. Though he wants the love of his wife Vickie (Cathy Moriarty) and his brother Joey (a brilliant Joe Pesci), something always seems to come between them. The kind of animalistic temperament that helped make him a champ is something that in real life, both Vickie and Joey struggle to tame and which ultimately threatens to send him into a downward spiral.

Renowned for immersing himself into the world of his characters, De Niro transformed his appearance to gain fifty pounds during production to portray the faded star, having previously trained relentlessly to get his body in shape for the ring. Vivid and unremitting in its uncompromising brutality and honesty, the fight sequences in particular are famed for their realism. Simply put, this is one of American cinema’s masterworks.

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