The Sting

The Sting (1973) is about two con men taking revenge on a mob boss in 1936. Johnny Hooker runs small cons in the street. He and his partner steal from the wrong man: the money belonged to a crime boss named Doyle Lonnegan. Lonnegan has the partner killed. Hooker finds a retired con man, Henry Gondorff. The plan is a big one: build a fake betting parlour and draw Lonnegan into a wager on horse racing. A building is rented, a crew assembled, and an entire false business constructed. The method is to con the audience as well. Part of the plan is withheld from you and you learn what happened in the last section along with the characters. The chapters are separated by title cards like pages from an old book and the film deliberately imitates the visual language of the period. The music is drawn from Scott Joplin's rags. That was an error and the film accepts it: ragtime was long out of fashion by 1936 and represents the period thirty years too early. The music took on a life of its own regardless and brought Joplin's work back into circulation. Paul Newman and Robert Redford are together for the second time after Butch Cassidy, with the same director, George Roy Hill. It won seven Oscars including best picture. The last shot explains the whole trick. It runs 129 minutes. Good for: con films, classic Hollywood, and clever construction. Less good for: the first half is slow and the plot demands attention.