“He stuffed himself every night until he looked like a pig,” recalls Raging Bull’s original scripter Mardek Martin.

You know this already. You know that Robert De Niro ate for two months to gain the 50lbs he needed to impersonate La Motta in decline. You know he got so good at boxing that he entered three Brooklyn boxing matches and won two of them.

But is this what makes De Niro’s portrayal of ’40s pugilist Jake La Motta great? “He put on not just weight, but degradation,” points out critic David Thomson.

Watch the way the actor is constantly play-punching and roughly cuffing, turning everyone in his life into human punch-bags.

De Niro’s performance keeps us close while holding us away, always hinting at how Jake’s wobbly sexuality powers his rage and isolation – especially when meeting a goodlooking opponent: “Don’t know whether to fuck him or fight him...”

Greatest Moment:  “Did you fuck my wife?”

Also See: Johnny Boy (Mean Streets), Vito Corleone (The Godfather Part II), Travis Bickle (Taxi Driver), Michael (The Deer Hunter), Rupert Pupkin (The King Of Comedy), Jimmy Conway (GoodFellas), Max Cady (Cape Fear), Neil McCauley (Heat).