When Raging Bull, Martin Scorsese's biopic of 1940s middle-weight boxing champion Jake LaMotta, premiered in November of 1980, critics and audiences alike hailed it as a masterpiece. The film's expressionistic black-and-white photography, its lyrical realism, and Robert De Niro's stunning performance gave it an expressive power of great magnitude. The amazing physical transformation De Niro underwent in the title role—adding an estimated 60 pounds of fat to his slender frame to portray the older, bloated LaMotta without a fat suit—also made it the most extreme example of method acting thus far in filmmaking. De Niro won an Oscar for his work in Raging Bull, as did editor Thelma Schoonmaker. But many critics, most notably Pauline Kael, film critic for the New Yorker magazine, were uncomfortable with the film, wondering if LaMotta—a violent, troubled wife-abusing lout—was worthy of the spiritual transformation Scorsese attributed to him...