The Sting is
a nice and captivating film. The writers put together a screenplay about two
grifters who conned a mob boss, but they went one step further by conning the
audience too. While I was watching, I felt the movie wasn’t as classy as it was
made out to be, but the ending was a con, and the writers got me. I applauded
them for it.
The acting in
the movie is top-notch because each scene had to be convincing—not just to the
man they were trying to con, but also to you, the viewer, so you wouldn’t feel
like you were watching a poorly executed mess. The movie’s title phrase (The
Sting) refers to the moment when a con artist finishes the "play" and
takes the mark’s money (the mark being the person being conned). If the con is
successful, the mark doesn’t realize they’ve been "taken" (cheated)
until the con men are long gone. The film is shown in different sections with
old-fashioned title cards.
The movie is
about revenge. 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 the vicious crime boss Doyle Lonnegan
(Robert Shaw). Doyle, upset that his money was stolen, sends men after Johnny
and Luther. Luther is killed, but Johnny escapes and seeks out Luther’s friend,
Henry "Shaw" Gondorff (Paul Newman), a mastermind in cons. Together,
they plan to con Doyle out of a huge amount of money as revenge for killing
their mutual friend Luther.
The plot of this
film is gripping and unfolds in ways that keeps you captivated, as you are more
interested in how things will turn out, than you are about the cast wellbeing.
The Sting was
a major blockbuster in its time. The movie cost $5.5 million to make and went
on to earn over $160 million. It was also a critical success, universally
acclaimed, and its screenplay is highly celebrated and rated 39th on The
Writers Guild of America’s list of 101 Greatest Screenplays Ever
Written. It won 7 Oscars at the 46th Academy Awards out of 10 nominations,
including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay.
This is an
old-time classic from the ’70s, one I enjoyed watching and would like to see
again. I wouldn’t call it a must-see, but if you enjoy classics, this is one
for you.
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