When Jake LaMotta steps into a boxing ring and obliterates his opponent, he's a prizefighter. But when he treats his family and friends the same way, he's a ticking time bomb, ready to go off at any moment. Though LaMotta wants his family's love, something always seems to come between them. Perhaps it's his violent bouts of paranoia and jealousy. This kind of rage helped make him a champ, but in real life, he winds up in the ring alone.

When Paul Schrader was working on the script, he put in numerous shocking moments such as Jake LaMotta masturbating and dipping his penis into a bucket of ice. Schrader later admitted that the film held less personal significance to him than it did for Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese and he added the shocking material just to see what he could get past the studio. Ultimately, the masturbation was cut and, instead of putting his penis into the ice, La Motta pours the ice down his underwear.

Jake La Motta:
I get ya's both in the ring, I'll give ya both a fuckin' beatin', ya both can fuck each other.

Continuity: Early on in the movie, there is a scene where Jake tells Joey to punch him. Joey does so, repeatedly, and leaves his ring on thereby cutting Jake with each new punch. Yet right before he throws the last punch, all of the puncture wounds in Jake's forehead have been removed.

(1890)
Music by Pietro Mascagni
Performed by Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna (as Orchestra of Bologna Municipal Theater)
Conducted by Arturo Basile
Courtesy of RCA S.p.A.