Criminal Movie Critique of Raging Bull

Some time back Entertainment Weekly posted their list of the top 100 best movies of all time. I had seen many of them. I thought many of them belonged. There were a few at the top I had never seen, kept hearing good things about and thought it was time to see. I borrowed the Godfather series from my brother and my wife and I watched them all in amazement that we had gone all this time and not seen them. Definite candidates for the list, even justifiable to be at the top. I went to the library and found Citizen Kane. I always liked Orson Wells and agreed that this was a definite classic.

Recently, Raging Bull appeared in the "On Demand" list of free movies. I saw it was about a boxer and remembered it was high on the list so we sat down to watch it. I must clearly say that I have rarely seen anything so utterly bad. I did like the fight scenes, but when it came to the life of the lead character it was simply juvenile. The dialog was talentless and the time sequences were choppy. It was completely painful to watch and in the end, there was no payoff for having gone through the exercise. I could not have felt more empty if I had instead spent 2 hours staring at a white wall.

Entertainment Weekly has this film as #5 best of all time. The American Film Institute lists Raging Bull #4 best of American movies. Roger Ebert lists it as the best film of all time dealing with the theme of jealousy calling it the "Othello" of our times. I can only respond to this criminal movie critique by placing my head in my hands.

My question to the readers is "where am I missing the boat here?" Perhaps you have seen the movie and also think it is great. Please enlighten me. I cannot for the life of me come to any other conclusion than that the movie was written by a junior high school student. The acting and filming were pretty good, but resting on a worthless foundation.