Raging Bull is a fantastic movie, and I think Jake LaMotta just might be DeNiro's greatest role. He took a completely unsympathetic character, a bum, an abuser of women, a man completely without class or perhaps even morals, and made you actually want to see what happened in his life.

Cathy Moriarty and Joe Pesci are also stellar. Moriarty is just gorgeous, but I don't think she ever lived up to the potential she showed in this role. And Pesci is beyond Pesci - just great.

My mother grew up in that neighborhood. The LaMotta brothers were older, but she knew them, and they often went to the same CYO dances. She said that they were real "cafones", and usually ended the evening in a fistfight, just like in the movie.