Extraordinary, electric, perverse, brilliant—they are puny words to describe Robert De Niro in this unflinching biography of Jake La Motta, the middleweight boxing champ from 1949 to 1951. De Niro gives a performance of such intensity and physical punishment that even the Oscar he seems sure to win will be insufficient recompense. To prepare for the role, the actor trained for a year with La Motta, who is now 59. De Niro not only mastered his speech, behavior and boxing style, but even gained 56 pounds to show the champ's physical decline as a pathetic burlesque comic in the 1960s. Using La Motta's 1970 autobiography as a base, director Martin (Taxi Driver) Scorsese and writers Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin have crafted a ferocious and sometimes funny look at a Bronx street kid who could never confine his fury to the gym. Aided by Michael Chapman's superb black-and-white photography, Scorsese keeps his 128-minute film at a fever pitch. The fight scenes are the best ever filmed and only slightly more brutal than La Motta's emotional flareups with family, friends and the Mob. As La Motta's sultry second wife, a tall, blond newcomer, Cathy Moriarty, 20, is a Lana Turner with a Bronx accent. She's also an indelible screen presence. Joe Pesci, as Jake's beleaguered manager brother, is splendid, too. But it is De Niro who dominates this movie, seeming to tear his performance out of his own soul. At the end, La Motta sits before a mirror, fat and 50ish, rehearsing a monologue from On the Waterfront for his club act. Suddenly we understand what that line about "a one-way ticket to Palookaville" really means. The scene, like the entire film, is painful to watch—and impossible to forget. (R)
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