Raging Bull

You'll find few top ten lists of greatest sports films ever made that don't include Raging Bull, and few top ones come to mention it. It is everything that most sporting movies aren't: focused, unsentimental and brutally realistic. Martin Scorsese's electric biopic of Jake LaMotta sees Robert De Niro in the form of his life, playing the physically powerful but emotionally retarded boxing champion. Not for the first time (or the last) he's ably supported by Joe Pesci, in a movie as famous for De Niro's physical appearance (he gained 60 pounds yadda yadda) as it is for wincingly graphic bloodletting. De Niro rightfully picked up the Oscar for his performance.