Robert Wise’s The Set-Up is probably the only noir boxing film based on a poem. It’s a story about a fixed boxing match, starring legendary tough guy Robert Ryan as the fighter who’s supposed to take the dive. His manager, thinking he’d lose anyway, didn’t let him in on the deal, which leads to problems. The film has a lot going for it, but one thing that stood out to me was the audience for the fight – people who range from gross to creepy to bloodthirsty.
-
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
- Live from Stellar Records | raptnrent.me on “Raise expectations to a new intention”
- Eric Likness on Ceci n’est pas une donut
- Eric Likness on AT Drops the BOMB!
- … we made them what they are. | raptnrent.me on “Ah, the poetic wonders of destruction and turmoil”
- We’re creative because we care – AI106 on AT Drops the BOMB!
Meta
Blogroll
Man, what a beautiful set of animated GIFs. When I saw The Ste-Up, it was not too long after seeing Raging Bull, and I think Scorsese’s vision of the violence in the ring spilling into the audience (and vice versa) is quoting the very shots you are capturing with these GIFs. So brilliant!
Another brilliant touch to The Ste-Up was that it happens in real time. The entire span of action is the actual running time of the film, I love those details 🙂
And how did I gather this? Well, ironically, I blogged about it in 2006, and listened to Scorsese’s commentary. http://bavatuesdays.com/movie-list-1/
Thank god for the blog as outboard memory!
I think I’ll have to watch it again, this time with the commentary turned on. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Raging Bull, so that goes on my list too. What drew me to The Set-Up was the Joseph Moncure March connection. His other book, The Wild Party, made a major impression on me, as it used poetry in a way I hadn’t experienced before. So I’ll have to find the book too. That, and a few 27-hour days.
Pingback: The Set-Up: Round two | raptnrent.me