"One scene, when La Motta prepares for a ferocious beating by Robinson, shows him in a terrifyingly patient exaltation of anticipation of pain that, he knows, he well deserves for the pain that he has caused those closest to him. It’s a moment of conscience in torment that glows and flares only briefly, but with an intensity to burn a hole in the screen."

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/revisiting-the-violence-and-style-of-martin-scorseses-raging-bull