The film tells the story of Jake La Motta, a tough Italo-American from the Bronx who became world middleweight champion after the Second World War.
"The theme of the film is survival," says Scorsese.
La Motta, in the course of an inimitable life, fights to the death to survive himself, vainly trying not to fall into the spiral of his own neuroses and failures.
"There are no regular fights", adds Scorsese, referring perhaps more to life than to sport, and presenting us the enormous effort that everyone has to face in his own private ring.
RAGING BULL is a spiritual film and a melancholic lesson on time and the destructive vocation of the show.