The Sting

All it takes is a little confidence
All it takes is a little confidence
THE STING (PG)
D: George Roy Hill
Universal (Tony Bill, Michael Phillips & Julia Phillips)
US 1973
129 mins

Comedy/Crime

W: David S. Ward
DP: Robert Surtees
Ed: William Reynolds
Mus: Scott Joplin (adapted by Marvin Hamlisch)
PD: Henry Bumstead
Cos: Edith Head

Paul Newman (Henry Gondorff), Robert Redford (Johnny Hooker), Robert Shaw (Doyle Lonergan), Charles Durning (Lt. William Snyder), Ray Walston (J.J. Singleton), Eileen Brennan (Billie)

Reuniting the two leading men of Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid with it's director George Roy Hill, The Sting is a crime caper starring Paul Newman & Robert Redford as two confidence tricksters who plan one last hustle on the gangster who caused the death of one of their friends.
Though the eventual hustle takes an absolute age to get round to, the climax is very fulfilling, though all the cat-and-mouse that comes in the build up does get to be a little tiresome. The film sometimes feels a quite set bound, especially for a 1973 production, but this didn't stop it being a runaway success, proving a huge hit with cinema audiences as well as Oscar voters, who named it the Best Picture of the year.
A lesser sequel, with a second rate cast, emerged a decade later.
8/10

Paul Newman & Robert Redford in The Sting
Paul Newman & Robert Redford in The Sting