While Frank Sheeran, the protagonist of the director’s latest, The Irishman, is an old-fashioned figure of almost impenetrable stoicism.ĭespite their common interest in what it means to be masculine, these films are not the male power fantasies that some would have you believe. When misread, The Wolf of Wall Street is a laddish fever dream of sex, power and money. Goodfellas, Mean Streets and Casino exist in the male-dominated world of organised crime, where their characters get to the top through a combination of machismo and loyalty. Taxi Driver’s Travis Bickle, ‘God’s lonely man’, longs to be a hero. In differing manners, themes of masculinity and virility, and the way in which they relate to success, are at the heart of many of Scorsese’s films. A potent combination which ultimately leads to self-destruction and isolation.

Fierce yet vulnerable, his story is one of inadequacy, jealousy, rage and flailing masculinity. Even when on top of his sport, Jake is a man consumed by his demons. There is no slick charisma to be trapped by, this is a tale of a violent, broken man, captured by a phenomenal performance in a film which pulls no punches. Though his circumstances change in a rise and fall story somewhat similar to the director’s other work, Jake’s flaws remain constant.Īt no point do we fall for him – Scorsese and De Niro do not let us. By 1964, though, where the film begins and ends, he is overweight, washed-up and alone, practising a comedy routine in a New York club. By 1945, he has left his first wife and married Vikki, played by Cathy Moriarty in a remarkably assured debut.

He is, however, an explosive and damaged individual, dominated by feelings of self-hatred. In 1941, Jake is a promising boxer from the Bronx in New York, managed by his brother Joey (a then-unknown Joe Pesci) and potentially on his way to a title shot. He’s portrayed here by a peerless performance from Robert De Niro, who was rightly awarded with an Oscar for Best Actor. Shot in elegant black and white, it charts the life of middleweight boxer Jake LaMotta, the eponymous Raging Bull. Scorsese’s seventh film, which turned 40 this month, is arguably his greatest work. More about resentment and conflict than sport, this is a film with a man at war with himself at its heart.

It is, however, a film which lands its toughest blows outside of the ring. That in itself is no surprise, considering that it captures the brutality of boxing in a brazen manner.

Raging bull boxing