Winner of 7 Academy Awards including Best Picture The
Sting stars Paul Newman and Robert Redford as two con men in 1930s Chicago.
After a friend is killed by the mob they try to get even by attempting
to pull off the ultimate "sting." No one is to be trusted as the twists
unfold leading up to one of the greatest double-crosses in movie history.
The con is on!
Winner of seven Academy
Awards including Best Picture, Director, and Screenplay, this critical
and box-office hit from 1973 provided a perfect reunion for director
George Roy Hill and stars Paul Newman and Robert Redford, who previously
delighted audiences with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Set in
1936, the movie's about a pair of Chicago con artists (Newman and Redford)
who find themselves in a high-stakes game against the master of all
cheating mobsters (Robert Shaw) when they set out to avenge the murder
of a mutual friend and partner. Using a bogus bookie joint as a front
for their con of all cons, the two feel the heat from the Chicago Mob
on one side and encroaching police on the other. But in a plot that
contains more twists than a treacherous mountain road, the ultimate
scam is pulled off with consummate style and panache. It's an added
bonus that Newman and Redford were box-office kings at the top of their
game, and while Shaw broods intensely as the Runyonesque villain, The
Sting is further blessed by a host of great supporting players including
Dana Elcar, Eileen Brennan, Ray Walston, Charles Durning, and Harold
Gould. Thanks to the flavorful music score by Marvin Hamlisch, this
was also the movie that sparked a nationwide revival of Scott Joplin's
ragtime jazz, which is featured prominently on the soundtrack. One of
the most entertaining movies of the early 1970s, The Sting is a welcome
throwback to Hollywood's golden age of the '30s that hasn't lost any
of its popular charm.
