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.
About raptnrent: I got the name from my keys - R Apt and R Ent for the back door to my apartment and the back door to the house. I liked that they were also words: Rapt, meaning enthralled, riveted, captivated, and Rent, meaning torn asunder, violently wrenched. I thought it made for an interesting juxtaposition, open to all kinds of interpretations.
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.
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