'Raging Bull' and the Glory of the Unlikable Protagonist

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Jake La Motta would definitely not save any cats.

Martin Scorsese's classic Raging Bull turned 40 this month, and I think that is the perfect time to revisit one of the worst tropes in all of storytelling, the "likable" protagonist. But first, let's wax poetic about this masterpiece.

Just a few short years after Taxi Driver, Robert De Niro teamed back up with Scorsese in a film that introduced unflinching realism to audiences in 1980. The New York Times said it was an "exceedingly violent as well as poetic" fight picture that maps "the landscape of the soul." Leonard Maltin called it "extraordinarily compelling."

Raging Bull garnered eight Oscar nominations and won two, including Best Actor for De Niro.

Operating with a method performance, De Niro gained and lost weight to portray La Motta at different stages of his life. He embodied the boxer's psychological and sexual complexities with violent force.

Beside him were Joe Pesci and Cathy Moriarty. Pesci plays De Niro's brother, and Moriarty plays his young bride. La Motta systematically destroys their lives as well as his own.

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