Recognized as one of the best films of the 1980s, one of the best films about boxing, and maybe the best film of Martin Scorsese’s career, Raging Bull is a film that he almost didn’t make.

Robert De Niro, who portrays 1940s middleweight champ Jake LaMotta, saw drama in the boxer’s shaky rise and inevitable downfall. He pushed the sports-hating Scorsese to make the film.

Hinged upon a series of fights that lead to LaMotta’s shot at the title, Raging Bull doesn’t pull its punches when showing the brutality of boxing, or the insecurity-fueled rage that permeates LaMotta’s relationships with his wife (Cathy Moriarty) and brother (Joe Pesci).