Raging Bull

Reception

Box office

The brew of violence and anger, combined with the lack of a proper advertising campaign, led to the film's lukewarm box office intake of only $23 million, when compared to its $18 million budget. By the time it left theaters, it only earned $10.1 million in theatrical rentals (equivalent to $30.3 million in 2022).[36] Scorsese became concerned for his future career and worried that producers and studios might refuse to finance his films.[37] According to Box Office Mojo, the film grossed $23,383,987 in domestic theaters (equivalent to $70.1 million in 2022).[38]

Critical response

When it first premiered in New York on November 14, 1980, the initial release of Raging Bull was met with polarized reviews, but the film would later receive widespread critical acclaim and is widely regarded as one of Scorsese's best works.[30][31]

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 92% based on 149 reviews, with an average rating of 9.00/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Arguably Martin Scorsese's and Robert De Niro's finest film, Raging Bull is often painful to watch, but it's a searing, powerful work about an unsympathetic hero."[39] Metacritic which assigns a weighted average, gave it a score of 90 out of 100, based on 28 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[40]

Jack Kroll of Newsweek called Raging Bull the "best movie of the year".[30] Vincent Canby of The New York Times said that Scorsese "has made his most ambitious film as well as his finest" and went on to praise Moriarty's debut performance saying: "either she is one of the film finds of the decade or Mr. Scorsese is Svengali. Perhaps both."[41][37] Time praised De Niro's performance since "much of Raging Bull exists because of the possibilities it offers De Niro to display his own explosive art".[37] Steven Jenkins from the British Film Institute's (BFI) magazine, Monthly Film Journal, said "Raging Bull may prove to be Scorsese's finest achievement to date".[37]

Accolades

Award Category Recipient Result
Academy Awards[37][42][43] Best Picture Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff Nominated
Best Director Martin Scorsese Nominated
Best Actor Robert De Niro Won
Best Supporting Actor Joe Pesci Nominated
Best Supporting Actress Cathy Moriarty Nominated
Best Cinematography Michael Chapman Nominated
Best Film Editing Thelma Schoonmaker Won
Best Sound Donald O. Mitchell, Bill Nicholson,David J. Kimball, and Les Lazarowitz Nominated
American Cinema Editors Awards Best Edited Feature Film Thelma Schoonmaker Won
Boston Society of Film Critics Awards Best Film Won
Best Actor Robert De Niro Won
Best Cinematography Michael Chapman Won
British Academy Film Awards Best Actor in a Leading Role Robert De Niro Nominated
Best Editing Thelma Schoonmaker Won
Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles Cathy Moriarty Nominated
Joe Pesci Won
Directors Guild of America Awards Outstanding Directorial Achievement Martin Scorsese Nominated
Golden Globe Awards Best Motion Picture – Drama Nominated
Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama Robert De Niro Won
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards Best Film Won
Best Actor Robert De Niro Won
National Board of Review Awards Top Ten Films 2nd Place
Best Actor Robert De Niro Won
Best Supporting Actor Joe Pesci Won
National Film Preservation Board National Film Registry Inducted
National Society of Film Critics Awards Best Film 2nd Place
Best Director Martin Scorsese Won
Best Actor Robert De Niro 2nd Place
Best Supporting Actor Joe Pesci Won
Best Supporting Actress Cathy Moriarty 3rd Place
Best Cinematography Michael Chapman Won
New York Film Critics Circle Awards Best Film Runner-up
Best Director Martin Scorsese Runner-up
Best Actor Robert De Niro Won
Best Supporting Actor Joe Pesci Won

The Oscars were held the day after President Ronald Reagan was shot by John Hinckley, who did it as an attempt to impress Jodie Foster, who played a child prostitute in another of Scorsese's famous films, Taxi Driver (which also starred De Niro).[44] Out of fear of being attacked, Scorsese went to the ceremony with FBI bodyguards disguised as guests who escorted him out before the announcement of the Academy Award for Best Picture was made (the winner being Robert Redford's Ordinary People).

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association voted Raging Bull the best film of 1980 and De Niro best actor. The National Board of Review also voted De Niro best actor and Pesci best supporting actor. The Berlin International Film Festival chose Raging Bull to open the festival in 1981.[37]

The 2012 Parajanov-Vartanov Institute Award honored screenwriter Mardik Martin "for the mastery of his pen on iconic American films" Mean Streets and Raging Bull.[45]

Legacy

By the end of the 1980s, Raging Bull had cemented its reputation as a modern classic. It was voted the best film of the 1980s in numerous critics' polls and is regularly pointed to as both Scorsese's best film and one of the finest American films ever made.[46] Several prominent critics, among them Roger Ebert, declared the film to be an instant classic and the consummation of Scorsese's earlier promise. Ebert proclaimed it the best film of the 1980s,[47] and one of the ten greatest films of all time.[48] The film has been deemed "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1990.[49]

Raging Bull was listed by Time magazine as one of the All-TIME 100 Movies.[50] Variety magazine ranked the film number 39 on their list of the 50 greatest movies.[51] Raging Bull was fifth on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time.[52] The film tied with The Bicycle Thieves and Vertigo at number 6 on Sight & Sound's 2002 poll of the greatest movies ever.[53] When Sight & Sound's directors' and critics' lists from that year are combined, Raging Bull gets the most votes of any movie that has been produced since 1975.[54] In 2002, Film4 held a poll of the 100 Greatest Movies, on which Raging Bull was voted in at number 20.[55] Halliwell's Film Guide, a British film guide, placed Raging Bull seventh in a poll naming their selection for the "Top 1,000 Movies".[56] TV Guide also included the film on their list of the 50 best movies.[57] Movieline magazine included the film on its list of the 100 best movies.[58] Leonard Maltin included Raging Bull on his 100 Must-See Films of the 20th Century list.[59] Video Detective also included the film on its list of the top 100 movies of all time.[60] Roger Ebert named "Robert De Niro's transformation from sleek boxer to paunchy nightclub owner in Raging Bull" as one of the 100 Greatest Movie Moments.[61] The National Society of Film Critics ranked it #75 on their 100 Essential Films list.[62] Rolling Stone magazine ranked it #6 on their list of the 100 Maverick Movies in the Last 100 Years.[63]

A 1997 readers poll conducted by the L.A. Daily News ranked the film #64 on a list of the greatest American movies.[64] The Writers Guild of America named the film as the 76th best screenplay of all time.[65] Raging Bull is #7 on Time Out Film Guide's "Centenary Top 100" list,[66] and it also tied at #16 (with Lawrence of Arabia) on their 1998 readers poll.[67] In 2008, Empire magazine held a poll of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time, taking votes from 10,000 readers, 150 film makers, and 50 film critics in which Raging Bull was placed at number 11.[68] It was also placed on a similar list of 1000 movies by The New York Times.[69] In 2010, Total Film selected the film as one of The 100 Greatest Movies of All Time.[70] FilmSite.org, a subsidiary of American Movie Classics, placed Raging Bull on their list of the 100 greatest movies.[71] Additionally, Films101.com ranked the film as the 17th best movie of all time in a list of the 10,790 most notable.[72]

In 2012, the Motion Picture Editors Guild listed the film as the best-edited film of all time based on a survey of its membership.[73][74] In the 2012 Sight & Sound polls, it was ranked the 53rd-greatest film ever made in the critics' poll[75] and 12th in the directors' poll.[76] Contemporaries of Scorsese, like Francis Ford Coppola, have included it routinely in their lists for favorite films of all time. In 2015, Raging Bull ranked 29th on BBC's "100 Greatest American Films" list, voted on by film critics from around the world.[77]

American Film Institute recognition

  • AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies: #24[78]
  • AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills: #51[79]
  • AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition): #4[80]
  • AFI's 10 Top 10: #1 Sports[81]

This content is from Wikipedia. GradeSaver is providing this content as a courtesy until we can offer a professionally written study guide by one of our staff editors. We do not consider this content professional or citable. Please use your discretion when relying on it.