The Sting is a movie about con men and their setting up of a gangland kingpin who killed their friend.

I’m a big fan of con films but I have to tell you The Sting , while pleasant, is far down the list of caper films. Watching The Sting is somewhat akin to what they say about eating Chinese food; good while it lasts but an hour later, you’re hungry again. The reason I’m prefacing this with my overall ambivalent impression is The Sting won SEVEN Academy Awards for 1973. With films such as The Exorcist, Paper Moon, and American Graffiti as competition, I believe the Academy once again made the wrong choice (surprise).

The Sting introduced a couple of innovations for the 1970s – a reintroduction of ragtime music and a retro-look editing that used hand painted title cards in between the scenes. There were also a lot of fake backdrops to indicate the city skyline, sort of like a stage play. The cuts were also done with silent films style wipes, shutters, and irises. While such gimmicks were high speed for 1973, it looks saccharine and trite today. Just watch a couple old flickers from the 1920s or thirties and you will be full to your eyeballs and see where Director George Roy Hill got his ideas.

Not to say The Sting is not entertaining, with an excellent performance by Paul Newman as a washed up grifter who specializes in the long con. He just doesn't get enough screen time. Robert Redford, the nominal star and the one who was nominated for best actor here, does his typical non-acting performance. Playing a small time grifter, Redford just shows up and presents his blonde bangs and wan smile for the camera in nearly every scene. The two crooks get together when Redford flees from Joliet to Chicago to escape the clutches of villain Lonnegan (Robert Shaw) who becomes the target of The Sting. Despite being set in the 1930s, the actors look very 1970s, especially Redford.

In case you don’t know, a sting is a confidence game where the grifters try to bilk the mark out of his money. The trick is to get Lonnegan to trust Newman enough to bet big money on a fake off track gambling operation (“wire”) and take a big loss without knowing he was conned. To do this, Newman, worms his way into a high stakes poker game with Lonnegan, pretends to be drunk, and beats the pants off him in a hilarious scene where he calls him anything but “Lonnegan.” Lonnegan, known to be a cheater can’t fail to be impressed by a card sharp who cheats better than he does. Lonnegan now needs to get revenge by taking down Newman's illegal gambling operation. A couple other scenes are standouts, but I want you to view them for yourselves.

Besides Redford, Newman, and Robert Shaw ( The Taking of Pelham One Two Three ) , there is a LARGE supporting cast, including standouts Robert Earl Jones, Charles Durning (Sharky’s Machine), and Eileen Brennan, most of whom are part of the long con.

The Sting has to rank right up there on style points with the retro editing, music, costuming, and Newman’s superb reading of his character, unfortunately, whatever magic it had in 1973 seems to have evaporated.

The Universal DVD is a wretched pan and scan full frame version of the 2-hour color film with production notes and subtitles as the sole extras. For a SEVEN Academy Award winning film it seems to be a very shabby DVD treatment. They need to come out with a 1.85:1 theatrical format.

It's a fun film but seems to have not aged well. I can only give this one three stars.

Fans of con artist films would also enjoy

Paper Moon

The Grifters

The Music Man

Enjoy a good film tonight!








Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV