Release Date:
02/08/2005
Saying to hell with broken noses, concussions, and Michael Buffer, Raging Bull steps into the square circle to tell the true story of former middleweight champ Jake LaMotta. Martin Scorsese's pound-for-pound classic takes place during a time when boxing was arguably America's most popular sport and produced at a time when Robert De Niro was more than Ben Stiller's straight man. With a full second disc of extras, the special edition doesn't pull any punches, either. "The Bronx Bull" weighs the film's significance with critics and crew members, including a recent interview with LaMotta, in which he reveals his ex-wife's observation that the flick portrayed him nobler than he really was. A tribute to Scorsese's attention to detail, "DeNiro vs. LaMotta," juxtaposes fight scenes from the movie with footage from the actual bouts they mimicked almost identically. A four-part featurette headlines the remaining extras, going round by round through each facet of the creative process. "Before the Fight" recounts the original book adaptation and preproduction, "Inside the Ring" discusses capturing the bloody punch-outs, and "Outside the Ring" finally offers a reprieve from the violent fighting in the ring
to chronicle all of the violent fighting outside of it.