THE SET-UP
Directed by: Robert Wise.
Produced by: Richard Goldstone.
Written by: Art Cohn, based on the poem by Joseph Moncure March.
Director of Photography: Milton Krasner.
Edited by: Roland Gross.
Released by: Warner Home Video.
Country of Origin: USA. 72 min. Not Rated.
With: Robert Ryan, Audrey Trotter, George Tobias & Alan Baxter.
DVD Features: Audio Commentary by Robert Wise & Martin Scorsese. English, French & Spanish subtitles.

Over the course of its brief duration, this 1949 boxing drama emerges as a masterpiece of existentialism, dramatizing how the best-laid plans can go awry due to the absurdity of chance or randomness. Stoker Thompson (Robert Ryan), a washed-up boxer who is at a crossroads in his life, refuses to throw a crucial fight that has been fixed. In many ways, this subtly subversive movie hints that the ultimate set-up may be life itself.

The Set-Up is structured for maximum suspense, as its plot unfolds in real time. A feature that gives the picture a quality of seemingly realistic arbitrariness is its observantly roving camera. In the beginning, a tracking shot captures various characters on the street before settling on a specific window in a building, where it picks up on the story of Stoker and his wife Julie (Audrey Totter).

DVD Extras: The sole feature is an engrossing commentary by Robert Wise and Martin Scorsese. Since they do not cut each other off, ask each other questions, or otherwise interact, it is fair to presume the filmmakers were recorded separately, which may be why they individually repeat many of the same points. Once one gets past this minor distraction, an already richly-textured film is enhanced even more with information of its production history and cinematic influence.

Wise observes that the viewer should never be aware of camera movement; any gratuitous use of it is grandstanding. Rightly, Wise thinks the fight scenes, though choreographed, feel real due to the actors' boxing experience.

As for Scorsese, though he alludes to the connection between the boxing scenes and those of his own Raging Bull (1980), he insists that nothing could top The Set-Up's for sheer visceral quality; he therefore filmed Raging Bull’s fights differently. Whereas The Set-Up's fights are filmed from a low angle outside the ropes of the ring, giving the viewer the point of view of a first-row spectator, Scorsese shot his from inside the ring. He also makes the argument that the rings of the fighting bell are meant to act as music - an idea just as applicable to the veritable symphony of brutal body blows.

Finally, Scorsese places the film in the context of order battling chaos. Wise himself hints at the movie's metaphysical questions when he talks about how directors have remarked that if it had been made in France, The Set-Up would have initially received the critical praise it so deserves. Reymond Levy
October 13, 2004