The Sting (1973), one of the fun movies that are actually good!

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Poster Source

“Fun” and “Great” are two words that scarcely go together when it comes to films. I don’t mean enjoyable by fun, great films are always enjoyable. I mean playful and easygoing. But in some rare cases, these two words can be applied simultaneously. The Sting is one such case.

Lately I’ve been watching a few films that I’ve seen at a much younger age and with untrained eyes. Following that route, decided to watch The Sting again last night. It turned out to be such an amazing experience!

The story goes like this -

Hooker (played by Robert Redford) and Luther are two con men. They stage a robbery and take 11,000 dollars. The time is right after the great depression when the economy was slowly recovering and that was a huge amount of money. But what they didn’t realize is that the money belonged to a notorious mafia boss named Lonnegan. Lonnegun kills Luther and Hooker gets away, devastated by his friend’s death.

Hooker then seeks out an old friend of Luther, Henry Gondorff (played by Paul Newman), a legendary con artist in retirement with feds on his tail. Together they plan to go against Lonnegun.


So, my younger brother was watching the film with me and it was his first time. He rolled his eyes. “Oh, I know what will happen. They will go and take revenge on the boss.”, he exclaims.

I grinned. Oh, boy! If it was that simple!

They make an elaborate plan to get back to the boss and use his characteristics against him. And every moment of it, every step of it is so damn enjoyable!


Shaw, Redford, NewmanSource

The boss (played by Robert Shaw, and he did an amazing job) maintains an immaculate picture of him. No one crosses him and manages to get away. This is the reason he chases and guns down the con men in the first place for money that hardly means anything to him. Something more valuable than money, his image, is on the line. He won’t take a loss. He can’t lose. He’s an egoistic maniac.

Henry and Hooker decide to take on that blind pride. To shatter it to the ground. To humiliate him utterly. That would be far worse than killing him. Henry rally up his old pals and henchmen to make it happen.

How they go about it is the true charm of the film. If you’ve never seen it, you are in for a treat!
Oh and did I say, Paul Newman and Robert Redford?

The action scenes are stylish as hell. The chase scene, the one where Henry plays poker. True gem of some moments!
The background score also gets you in the mood. You’d care for the characters, love their trickeries.
Back in the days heist films weren’t that jolly. The makers had to maintain production code. This film was after the abandonment of that code, so you can expect no such moral policing.

The Sting won 10 oscar nominations and won 7, including the best picture, best director. But this bit info shouldn’t lead you to believe automatically that it’s good. Oscar doesn’t mean anything. I’m only saying this to bait you into seeing it. :P

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Twitter - https://twitter.com/not_a_c1nephile
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