A stirring performance by DeNiro as LaMotta, there is two scenes that always come to mind when I think of this movie, the first is already mentioned here, DeNiro`s character laughing at Sugar Ray. Probably even more powerful is the scene with Kathy Moriarty and DeNiro in the bedroom with DeNiro icing himself after almost being brought to orgasm before a fight.

This movie chronicled the madness of one of the toughest SOB's to ever step into the ring: Jake LaMotta. DeNiro absolutely shines in the only role he ever won the Oscar for. His portrayal of LaMotta should forever set the standard for so - called method acting. Pesci is also brilliant as his brother, and Scorcese once again showed his ability to bring the best out of both of these fine actors. To sum up this movie and the hell hath no fury attitude of the main protagonist, LaMotta, I recall a great line from the film when after fighting Sugar Ray Robinson, I believe after the 5th or 6th time, LaMotta said what I thought was the best line of the movie: You never got me down Ray, you hear me? You never got me down...LaMotta lost that fight, but that didn't matter, what did matter is that he never went down ...

This could possibly be the greatest movie of all time period.................how could it not be the best sports movie? I sense there are idiotic new school raters on here for this to be so far down the list. Am I right? Let me guess, you don't like black and white movies? If you didn't give this a '5', go watch 'The Matrix', you don't know what a movie is.

A great movie period, boxing or otherwise. I have to disagree with you PBeavr. This is a movie about a very disturbed man, who happened to be a boxer, it's not just a Boxing movie. Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci were great as The LaMotta Brothers. In the movie LaMotta beats his brother up in a jealous rage. It never happened. LaMotta did beat up his best friend Pete (I don't remember his last name) but for the sake of brevity they combined several events of the friend and combined them with the brother. Great Movie!

More of a scary psychological portrayal than a sports movie- but one of the greatest movies I have ever seen. A must-see if you like sports movies. . .but it isn't a pleasant ride.

A savage movie about an unpleasant but not altogether unlikeable man. One of De Niro's best performances.

Unlike the recent trend toward truth-distortion and the sanitisation of fighters (Ali and Hurricane being prime examples) Scorsese makes no apology for his warts'n'all portrayal of the non-repentant (and not very likable) Jake. De Niro was at his best and had clearly done a lot of work both in the gym and in studying LaMotta's fights and style. Simply awesome.