Review of The Sting (1973) by Chris W — 27 Aug 2011

A few years after the great Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Paul Newman and Robert Redford reteamed with director George Roy Hill for this- an intricately crafted and wonderfully structured con artist/heist picture filled with tons of twists and turns, and entertainment value out the wazoo.

Set in 1936 around Chicago, Illinois, this is the story of a couple of con artsits who team up together (alogn with some others) in order to get revenge on a crime boss who killed a mutual acquaintance of theirs. The story is compelling all on its own, but making it a period piece set during the Great Depression just somehow makes it even more interesting.

The film is dense and complex, and you do have to pay attention, but it's well worth it, and this is both an extremely rewarding and entertaining caper. If you can follow any of the Ocean's movies, then you should be able to follow this one just fine. Hell, this is pretty much the granddaddy of those and many other similar films.

I'll be honest, I really dig this kind of thing. I'm not like a die hard fan of these types of movies, but I do really enjoy them when I happen to see them. Maybe it's because they are so invovled and are filled with tons of twists and turns. True, sometimes this sort of thing can get needlessly overcomplicated and convoluted, but thankfully that's all avboided here due to some top notch writing and directing.

Newman and Redford once again show they have excellent chemistry, and you can tell they had a lot of fun here. They give some great performances, but they're not alone. As the chief antagonist, Robert Shaw is quite commanding and intimadating, and he does a great job. Just an icy stare from this guy is menacing. Supporting players such as Charles Durning and Eileen Brennan also put in some nice work.

The sets, costumes, art direction, music (an homage to Scott Joplin's ragtime style), and cinematography are all excellent. This film was nominated for (and won) several Oscars, and, yeah, I think it was deserving of them. This film isn't just a well played genre film, it's an extremely lavish, well done and stylish genre film. It's light on real die hard substance, but hell, does that really have to matterthat much?

This is just a real zinger, and definitely a blast to watch. It's clever, mostly inoffensive (not overly crude, that is), and the effort they put into recreating the time period really shows. If you want to see an amazing con artist movie, then you should immediately check this one out, it's pretty much the gold standard.