Rob Hunter and Film School Rejects present 21 Things We Learned from Martin Scorsese’s The Set-Up Commentary.

The Set-Up is one of my favorite films (not favorite boxing films, favorite films period).  If you haven’t seen it, do yourself a favor and search it out.

And now, for three of my favorite commentary items (beware of spoilers)…

15. One of the elements that appealed to Wise with the story is that the fight at the heart of the film isn’t some championship bout… it’s just a regional, late on the card fight.

20. He says traditionally this kind of film sees the protagonist not surrender, they get their self-respect, and morally everyone feels uplifted, but it happens here in a different way. The ending in the alley sees his true redemption as he pays the price but is now allowed out of the hellscape his life had become. “It’s really a happy ending,” says Scorsese about Stoker having his hand crushed with a brick by crooks holding him incorrectly accountable “in a truthful way. And maybe there’s a hope to that, a hope for the weaker ones in the world.”

2. The film opens with a clock face showing 9:05 and Wise closes the film with the same clock roughly the length of the film later.