Review: The Sting (B+)

The Sting (1973)
Directed by George Roy Hill
Starring Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw, Ray Walston and Eileen Brennan
MPAA:PG
Grade: B+

Review by Sebastian Francis Kennedy

For once, the Academy got it right. Winner of 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Screenplay, The Sting is a fantastic film. An outstanding comedy/drama, The Sting is one of those classics that seems to get better with age.

Robert Redford and Paul Newman teamed up earlier with George Roy Hill for the excellent Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, so this film is a bit of a reunion picture. In The Sting, Newman plays Henry Gondorff, a legend of the big con that has fallen on hard times. Redford plays Kelly aka Johnny Hooker, a rising star of the con game that has taken it on the lamb. The two pair up for a big score against Doyle Lonnegan, a ruthless mobster that has killed a close friend of Hooker's.

The Sting ranks right up there with two of my favorites - House of Games and The Grifters. All three films are adept at making complex con games entertaining and best of all, easy to understand. The Sting is certainly the most accessible of the three and in some ways, it may be the best grifter movie ever. The Sting is well acted, well directed and extremely well written. A true classic.