Raging Bull (1980)

1001 Movies Review

"Raging Bull is also a poetic, daring exploration of the soul of a violent, inarticulate man."

Now, here's an easy one with which to start this decade.

I'm not remotely interested in movies about boxers or boxing. It was all I could do to watch Kubrick's boxing movie (Killer's Kiss, 1955) - but then Kubrick has a greater appeal for me than Scorsese.

If you like films about boxing, be my guest. It's already been very highly rated, so I'm sure you don't need my opinion to sway you one way or another.

It's worth posing this question here, though I guess I might repeat it elsewhere before long. How imperative is it that one must see all 1001 movies? It isn't, of course. After all, it's not as if I'm a paid critic obliged to see anything and everything my employers require me to review. I suppose it slightly - ever so slightly - compromises any claim I might make of offering a comprehensive view of the merits of the 1001 Movies book, and the movies themselves.

But I'm willing to accept the compromise if it means I don't have to watch two men beat each other bloody and senseless for money and macho pride.