The Sting (1973)

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The Sting (1973)

6/10

Starring

Paul Newman

Robert Redford

Robert Shaw

Directed by George Roy Hill

The Sting is a nice and captivating film. The writers put together a screenplay about two grifters who conned a mob boss, but the writers went one step further of conning the audience too. While I was watching, I felt the movie was not as classy as it was made to be, but the ending was a con, and the writers got me and I applauded them for it.

The acting in the movie is top notch because each scene had to be convincing to both the man they were trying to con and you the viewer so that you will not feel like you are watching a crap mishap of a movie.

The movie's title phrase (The Sting) refers to the moment when a con artist finishes the "play" and takes the mark's money (mark refers to the man being conned). If a con is successful, the mark does not realize he has been "taken" (cheated), until the con men are gone.

The film is shown in different sections with old fashioned title cards.

The movie is about revenge, when three friends Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford), Luther and Joe conned $11,000 in cash from an unsuspecting victim. Unfortunately their victim was a numbers racket courier for vicious crime boss Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw).

Doyle is upset that his money got taken, decided to send men after Johnny and Luther. Luther got killed but Johnny escaped and went to a friend of Luther Henry "Shaw" Gondorff (Paul Newman) who is a mastermind in cons. To help him con Doyle off a huge amount of money as an act of revenge for him killing their mutual friend Luther.

The Sting in its time was a major blockbuster; the movie cost $5.5 million to make and it went on to pull in over $160 million.

The movie was also a critical acclaim universally and the screenplay is very highly celebrated, rated 39^thin The Writers Guild of America's list of 101 Greatest Screenplays ever written. It went home with 7 Oscars in the 46^th Academy Awards from 10 nominations. These awards include Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay.

Here is an old time classic of the 70s one that I did enjoy seeing and will like to see it again, but I will not say it is a must see. But if you like watching classics here is one for you to see.