"Actor: Joe Hanrahan"

• Raging Bull : Ultimate Edition (1980) | DVD | (12/09/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Raging Bull is arguably the finest work produced from the Scorsese and De Niro partnership. De Niro gives an amazing portrayal of real-life boxer Jake LaMotta whose animal side lurks just beneath the surface ever ready to erupt. Vivid and unremitting in its uncompromising brutality and honesty the fight sequences are famed for their realism. Jake LaMotta is a boxer whose psychological and sexual complexities erupt into violence both in and out of the ring. Joe Pesci and Cathy Moriarty are unforgettable as the brother who falls prey to Jake's mounting paranoia and the fifteen-year-old girl who becomes his most prized trophy. Violent throughout this film is a testament to Scorsese's and De Niro's skills creating a thoroughly absorbing film about such an unlikable character. Renowned for throwing himself into the roles of his character De Niro went on a diet to gain fifty pounds during production for the role of the faded star. Raging Bull garnered eight Oscar'' nominations and won two including Best Actor for De Niro - the second of two Golden statues for the Italian-American method actor.

• Defiance | DVD | (26/07/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  In the great tradition of American Westerns Defiance tells a sweeping tale of revenge hatred and justice. When a law-abiding rancher is slain by the town's most powerful man because he's not willing to pay his dues his youngest son who witnesses his father's brutal murder devotes his life to avenging his father's death. Years later he returns to the town of Defiance and kills the man's son. But now his brother becomes swept up in this cycle of revenge...