Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull popularized an idea that many (lesser) Hollywood filmmakers have since taken to heart: A scene of violent action can evoke how the experience might feel to those embroiled in it. Scorsese's 1980 masterpiece transcended the boxing genre and remains the benchmark for the expressionist fight scene. As rendered by the director and his extraordinary technical team—cinematographer Michael Chapman, editor Thelma Schoonmaker, sound-effects editor Frank Warner—the bouts are both bruisingly physical and convincingly interior, full of stylized touches and hallucinatory details (smoke-filled air, popping flashbulbs, geysers of sweat and blood). Boxing aficionados have called them unrealistic, which misses the point. Once the movie steps inside the ring—as in this famous final showdown between its hero Jake La Motta (Robert de Niro) and his archnemesis Sugar Ray Robinson (Johnny Barnes)—it also steps inside La Motta's battered consciousness.