Boxing Day continues! This Scorsese flick is often regarded as one of the greatest films of all time. It was a biopic about Jake LaMotta, a middleweight champion with an interesting and somewhat violent personality outside the ring. DeNiro was wonderful here as LaMotta and I'm not sure if I've ever seen a better performance from the Oscar-winning actor. In terms of content and story, this movie really wasn't all that special or unique. A young and feisty boxer rises through the ranks while battling demons at home, wins some big fights in the ring, loses some big ones at home (marital woes, estranged siblings, etc.), and ultimately ends up a broken and battered old man with plenty of regrets. But there was definitely something special about the overall production here. The performances, the score, the ebb and flow of the film itself. I'd definitely stop short of calling it one of the greatest movies of all time, but at least I can see the case for such praise. I'm finally all done with the boxing movies in my backlog after seeing this one, Million Dollar Baby, and five of the six Rocky movies in the past four months or so, but who knows how many more I'll add before all is said and done? The Fighter is supposed to be pretty damn good and FX even has a boxing TV series coming up soon. But this'll be the last boxing movie for Boxing Day, 2010. Now I'm off to my girlfriend's house where I will have to continue this annual celebration of boxing by getting into a fist fight with her dog, a boxer.
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