It is a typical Scorsese moment - in nearly all his films there is a character who eventually recognises his own soul. But at the end of the film, he allows La Motta, whose brutality has hitherto extended from the ring into the lives of his wife and brother, to shout in his Maimi jail cell: "I am not an animal!" and begin his redemption. When describing La Motta - the man who let himself be hit in order to exhaust his opponent's strength - Scorsese cited St Thomas Aquinas, who said that animals served God better than man because they lived their natures so purely, without guilt. What was new was the emotional and psychological intensity of a time (the 40s and 50s), a place (mostly New York, Scorsese's home ground) and a person (a champion fighter who in the end loses everything). Films such as Body and Soul, The Set-Up and Golden Boy are recalled in the film's slow motion sequences, rapid cutting and sweeping camera movements. Where Kael was undoubtedly right was in her opinion that the film was as much a biography of the genre of boxing movies as about a particular fighter.
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