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Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw, Charles Durning, Ray Walston ... see more see more... , Eileen Brennan , Dimitra Arliss , Ed Bakey , Leonard Barr , William Benedict , Jack Collins , Charles Dierkop , Dana Elcar , Harold Gould , John Heffernan , Arch Johnson , Robert Earl Jones , Jack Kehoe , Sally Kirkland , Avon Long , Larry D. Mann , Paulene Myers , Kenneth W. O'Brien , Lee Paul , John Quade , Ken Sansom , James J. Sloyan , Tom Spratley , Brad Sullivan , Joe Tornatore , Scott Joplin

Four years after setting box offices ablaze in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Paul Newman, Robert Redford, and director George Roy Hill re-teamed with similar success for The Sting. Redford plays... read more read more... Depression-era confidence trickster Johnny Hooker, whose friend and mentor Luther Coleman (Robert Earl Jones) is murdered by racketeer/gambler Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw). Hoping to avenge Luther's death, Johnny begins planning a "sting" -- an elaborate scam -- to destroy Lonnegan. He enlists the aid of "the greatest con artist of them all," Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman), who pulls himself out of a drunken stupor and rises to the occasion. Hooker and Gondorff gather together an impressive array of con men, all of whom despise Lonnegan and wish to settle accounts on behalf of Luther. The twists and surprises that follow are too complex to relate in detail -- suffice to say that you can't cheat an honest man, and that you shouldn't accept everything at face value. The Sting became one of the biggest hits of the early '70s; grossing 68.5 million dollars during its first run, the film also picked up seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Adapted Score for Marvin Hamlisch's unforgettable setting of Scott Joplin's ragtime music. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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PG, 2 hr. 9 min.

Directed by: George Roy Hill

Release Date: December 1, 1973

Keywords: heist

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DVD Release Date: September 6, 2005

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Flixster Reviews (3,890)

  • cosmo313
    August 28, 2011
    cosmo313
    A few years after the great Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Paul Newman and Robert Redford reteamed with director George Roy Hill for this- an intricately crafted and wonderfully structured con artist/heist picture filled with tons of twists and turns, and entertainment value... read more out the wazoo.

    Set in 1936 around Chicago, Illinois, this is the story of a couple of con artsits who team up together (alogn with some others) in order to get revenge on a crime boss who killed a mutual acquaintance of theirs. The story is compelling all on its own, but making it a period piece set during the Great Depression just somehow makes it even more interesting.

    The film is dense and complex, and you do have to pay attention, but it's well worth it, and this is both an extremely rewarding and entertaining caper. If you can follow any of the Ocean's movies, then you should be able to follow this one just fine. Hell, this is pretty much the granddaddy of those and many other similar films.

    I'll be honest, I really dig this kind of thing. I'm not like a die hard fan of these types of movies, but I do really enjoy them when I happen to see them. Maybe it's because they are so invovled and are filled with tons of twists and turns. True, sometimes this sort of thing can get needlessly overcomplicated and convoluted, but thankfully that's all avboided here due to some top notch writing and directing.

    Newman and Redford once again show they have excellent chemistry, and you can tell they had a lot of fun here. They give some great performances, but they're not alone. As the chief antagonist, Robert Shaw is quite commanding and intimadating, and he does a great job. Just an icy stare from this guy is menacing. Supporting players such as Charles Durning and Eileen Brennan also put in some nice work.

    The sets, costumes, art direction, music (an homage to Scott Joplin's ragtime style), and cinematography are all excellent. This film was nominated for (and won) several Oscars, and, yeah, I think it was deserving of them. This film isn't just a well played genre film, it's an extremely lavish, well done and stylish genre film. It's light on real die hard substance, but hell, does that really have to matterthat much?

    This is just a real zinger, and definitely a blast to watch. It's clever, mostly inoffensive (not overly crude, that is), and the effort they put into recreating the time period really shows. If you want to see an amazing con artist movie, then you should immediately check this one out, it's pretty much the gold standard.
  • DreamExtractor
    August 15, 2011
    DreamExtractor
    A very good Oscar winner and and a classic
  • fb100001048934982
    May 31, 2011
    fb100001048934982
    The Sting sets an important template for future heist films, one full of surprises, twists, great acting, and a fine script. Unlike the modern Ocean films, The Sting never seemed to rely on it's two stars to carry the weight of a weak story. It keeps you on the edge of your seat,... read more and it's an exciting film, no matter who those actors are. A pure masterpiece for the heist genre.
  • jonnyjason
    April 26, 2011
    jonnyjason
    OVERVIEW: 1973's 'The Sting' is a Paul Newman classic- it's one of George Roy Hill's best films. The Acting is spot- on, the score's great, the scripts hilarious, but at the same time clever and dramatic. The score is filled with the music that people couldn't get enough of in th... read moree '70's, (Well, actually, it's pretty much just the same song, 'The Entertainer' over and over again, but it's still awesome) but it simply accents an entertaining movie about two guys, a girl, a game of cards, and the greatest heist in history (Well, at the time).

    SYNOPSIS: Local con man John Hooker (Robert Redford) and his fellow con partner, Luther, manage to con a random guy on the street out of 1,000 dollars one day. After blowing 300 of it at a club, Hooker is tackled by the police out of the 2,000. He discovers from them that it turns out the guy he conned that day was part of the mob, and that they killed Luther. John Hooker has given them fake 2,000 dollar bills, so now he's on the run from the mob and the police.
    It looks like John Hooker won't last more than two days, doesn't it? Well, before John has a plan. Before he went to the club, Luther had a discussion with him about going to the big leagues-to leave him behind and make big money. So, he gives him contacts to the greatest con man ever, Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman). The only reason he hasn't been well known lately is because he blew the money.
    After meeting up with him, they formulate a plan (and their acting here is excellent-it really looks like Hooker's betraying Gondorff, so I got a bit confused-their multiple characters in the story are all portrayed so excellently its hilarious) to con money off Doyle Lonnegan, local mobster, as to get their comeuppance for Luther. Henry plays a game of poker with him on a train ride back home (Both are cheating, and both know each other are cheating-hey, it's poker). Henry wins.
    John goes to Doyle's compartment and tells him that Henry cheated, and that he wants to make a deal with him. He wants to get revenge on Henry for not dishing out all the money. So, he tells him about his contacts at the horse races-it'll make him lots of money, and he only wants a small part of it.
    From here on, the story starts to twist and turn itself into a mysterious (and sometimes violent) intriguing, and yet, even more hilarious film than ever before. It involves surprising twists on the mob development, astonishing plot twists, and in the end, an ultimately satisfying film. (And the mob here gave me more chills than in The Godfather or Goodfellas)

    CONSENSUS: Part of the fun of The Sting is just how elaborate the schemes can be. The entire point of the movie is basically the last person to outsmart the other wins. It's hilarity and complexity is wrapped up together in a nice little bow- between the multiple parts of the movie, (Separated with a nice little place card with a title) and Paul Newman's and Robert Redford's acting at its best, you have a fun little movie that those smart enough to keep up pace with it will enjoy.
    The thing is with this movie, it seems to be more of an unintentional dramedy that it is. It seemed to be more aiming for a serious flick in the beginning, but it decided, hey, this would make a sweet comedy-in the end, that's what it became. The only problem with this, however, is that in the end, it seems that some moral and ethical values are being raised. I was just about to note that in my head for a review when I realized it was just a joke to raise the stakes and suspense, but in the end, it totally worked.
    Basically, it's a wonderful family comedy that's got suspense, comedy, fabulous acting, and a sprinkling of drama. Not perfect, but as perfect as a movie like this could be.
  • flixsterman
    April 13, 2011
    flixsterman
    There's an on-screen chemistry between Newman and Redford that seems genuine and sincere. They interact like a couple of old army buddies who've been to hell and back and are now able to communicate extensively with a wink here or a nod there. It's a beautiful thing to watch.
  • TomBowler
    March 28, 2011
    TomBowler
    And you thought Ocean's Eleven was a good heist movie. Full review later.
  • mumby1988
    February 15, 2011
    mumby1988
    It is very tempting to hate The Sting for beating The Exorcist to the Best Picture Oscar. Some would even go so far as to rank it alongside Crash and How Green Was My Valley is one of the Academy's greatest faux pas. But whatever vitriol the other two deserve, The Sting still hol... read moreds up as a damn fine film, with all the essential ingredients of a proper American caper.

    Like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting is very deliberately nostalgic and old-fashioned. Both films romanticise key aspects of American history, something which is evident in everything from the jazz-inflected dialogue to the washed-out visuals, right down to The Sting's family-friendly PG certificate. One of the most obvious expressions of this old-school approach is the editing. William H. Reynolds' transitions are all slow wipes and frames twisting on each other, and the film ends with an iris wipe of our two heroes walking off into the distance, like the characters in Looney Tunes.

    In line with this romantic depiction of 1930s Chicago, The Sting's tone is playful and breezy even in its most threatening moments. The Scott Joplin ragtime soundtrack gives every scene a precise sense of pace and momentum, and as with Howard Shore's work on The Lord of the Rings, the action fits the music so well you can't believe the actors weren't choreographing their movements to it on set. The film nestles somewhere between a Technicolor musical and the original version of Scarface, combining all that bright and cheerful about melodramas with all that is suspenseful about crime films.

    Aside from its similarity to Butch Cassidy, the closest comparison to The Sting would have to be Chinatown, since both films depict a similar era from a 1970s vantage point and have incredibly twisty stories. In terms of the period touches and historical accuracy, you couldn't put a playing card between them. But Chinatown is the better film, not because it is darker or more hard-hitting, but because it has more conscious and lucid intentions.

    Because Roman Polanski approached the Californian water wars as an outsider, he could be as savage as he liked about the American dream and drive home his arguments about contemporary America. For all its period glamour and elegant noir touches, Chinatown feels like it is constantly driving forward and asking you to keep up, with Polanski leaving nothing to chance to reel you in and break your heart. Because George Roy Hill has such massive affection for the period and lifestyle he is depicting, The Sting occasionally feels like a film which wants to stop and admire the view even when things are becoming crucial. At two hours long, it's still an efficient piece of storytelling, but it does feel like a film with a lot less to say.

    There are two aspects of The Sting which hold the film together, both as a piece of breezy entertainment and as a really good thriller in which everything adds up. The first is the storytelling, which is accessible without being facile and complex without being convoluted. The use of old-fashioned title cards explains where we are for people not old or informed enough to understand the twists, while the various cheats and increasingly elaborate bluffing keeps the rest of us guessing.

    The Sting is a film about conning in which everyone is conning or being conned by everyone else - a premise that could quickly get out of hand. But Hill and the cast get around this, drawing the audience in with the charm of the characters so they we not only indulge their play-acting, we encourage it. In the opening con involving Robert Redford and Robert Earl Jones (the father of Darth Vader), Hill's camera is there as a passive observer, never intervening by getting in close and thereby making their actions look believable. Hence when we find out what was really in the wallet, we not only don't feel bad for being tricked, but we find ourselves rooting for these guys.

    The other key aspect is Robert Shaw, whose performance as Doyle Lonnegan is the best of his career. Lonnegan is the most complex character in the film, someone who has hidden his own past to shore up credibility and who has risen to the top by outsmarting his opponents before cutting them out of their own operations. Shaw is a naturally intimidating screen presence, and in sharp contrast to Paul Newman and Redford his actions are constantly restrained and understated.

    As is so often the way, the most interesting part of Shaw's characterisation happened by accident. A week before filming, he slipped on a wet handball court and split all the ligaments in his right knee. Rather than delay filming, Shaw had to wear a knee brace under the wide trousers, resulting in a staggered and uneven gait. The impediment is noticeable when Lonnegan enters the salon, keeping his right leg absolutely straight as he slowly hobbles the steps. This subtle touch gives the character extra reasoning behind his ruthless approach, while also reassuring the audience that he is not invincible.

    The best scene in The Sting is the poker game which Newman joins on the train between New York and Chicago (ironically posing as a bookie called 'Shaw'). Instead of Scott Joplin, the scene is given rhythm by the background noise of the train, making the silences all the more unbearable. Shaw's face barely alters save for little flickers in his eyes and his mouth, and yet he manages to move from calmness to smirking confidence to seething fury all in five minutes. And then there is the great guessing point - how on earth did Gondorff manage to cheat?

    This latter point hints at the other great success of The Sting: the lack of excessive exposition. The film expects audiences not only to follow the plot but to have a working understanding of poker - or at the very least, be aware of the wider significance of the cards being played. Despite the fact that at no point the rules of either poker or the cons are explained in any great detail, you don't have to be an expert in either to follow the story. Compare that with the poker in The Cincinnati Kid, in which every move is explained and the camera is darting all over the place, desperately trying to make the scenes dramatic but having the opposite effect.

    Alongside Shaw's performance, there are other dark elements of The Sting which reference characters familiar to filmgoers of the day. The character of Snyder, the rogue FBI agent hunting down Hooker way outside his jurisdiction, bears some similarity to Popeye Doyle in The French Connection: like Gene Hackman, he pulls no punches and leaves no stone unturned to do his job. The idea of female assassins had become popular in the James Bond series, with such characters appearing in both From Russia with Love and Thunderball. And the black leather gloves worn by the hidden figure tailing Hooker is a possible reference to Dr. Strangelove.

    The Sting is not an unqualified success. It is ultimately very light-headed even in its serious moments, and in the conclusion of the final con involving the FBI it does descend a little into silliness. But it is very hard to take against a series of such enjoyable and well-judged performances, complimented by an engagingly complicated story. While it doesn't have the cult appeal of Butch Cassidy, it is an improvement on that work, and remains a must-see 1970s crime film.
  • SirPant
    January 31, 2011
    SirPant
    George Roy Hill is an underrated director, I really must catch up with more of his films. The Sting is brilliant, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance kid team up again in the best Heist film ever. Ocean's 11 isn't even close to capturing the charisma of The Sting, Newman and Redford a... read morere brilliant together and the only down-point of this film is that you know they didn't make another together. An American classic.
  • mjgildea
    August 24, 2010
    mjgildea
    The Sting is another one for my Kick-in-the-Ass list, meaning I want to kick myself in the ass for not seeing this sooner. Actually, I'd like to keep kicking until I hear my tailbone crack, I loved this movie so much. The ultimate con movie, The Sting is a superb blend of story, ... read moredirection and acting. Paul Newman and Robert Redford were the very definition of on-screen chemistry. Robert Shaw was also great as their mark. Shaw was scary -- I'm talking Daniel Plainview or Bill the Butcher scary. Unfortunately after seeing years of copycats, I saw the twist coming a mile away but The Sting is still magnificent. I understand why this was my grandfather's favorite movie.
  • bottcorecords1
    June 16, 2010
    bottcorecords1
    Maybe it's the Scott Joplin theme, or maybe it's the dirty, rundown look of everything, but The Sting has a wonderfully authentic atmosphere about it. So many movies tend to sterilize their period settings to the point where it looks more like a movie set than an actual living p... read morelace, but The Sting doesn't flinch from it's depression-era setting. Robert Redford stars as Johnny Hooker, a con artist with a price on his head after he inadvertently steals from the mob. He flees to Chicago where, with the help of new friend and master conman Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman), he seeks to turn the tables on those who want to see him dead. They con the mob boss using a "wire" (a telegraph wire) and a scheme involving betting on the horse races (it is in fact, an actual con that was used at the time). Newman and Redford play their parts with similar gusto, and there is much humor to be found in the complexity of the plot. The supporting cast too (including the great Ray Walston and Harold Gould), contribute wonderful moments. A truly great best picture winner from 1973.

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Critic Reviews

Jay Cocks
October 1, 2008
Jay Cocks, TIME Magazine

Newman and Redford pass a few facial expressions between them and try to cool each other out. If there ever was much of a script, it can be said to have gone to waste. Full Review

A.D. Murphy
February 19, 2008
A.D. Murphy, Variety

Extremely handsome production values and a great supporting cast round out the virtues. Full Review

Don Druker
December 13, 2006
Don Druker, Chicago Reader

Top-notch entertainment. Full Review

Vincent Canby
May 9, 2005
Vincent Canby, New York Times

The film is so good-natured, so obviously aware of everything it's up to, even its own picturesque frauds, that I opt to go along with it. Full Review

Roger Ebert
October 23, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

The movie has a nice, light-fingered style to it. Full Review

Elliot Panek
January 1, 2011
Elliot Panek, Common Sense Media

Smart, stylish caper -- but not for kids. Full Review

Dennis Schwartz
March 18, 2008
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Overrated, overlong and unconvincing formulaic comedy caper that relies heavily on star power. Full Review

Alistair Harkness
February 19, 2008
Alistair Harkness, Film4

The Sting still holds up as a beautifully constructed piece of mainstream entertainment with two stars burning brightly and staying on the right side of smug. Full Review

John J. Puccio
February 15, 2007
John J. Puccio, Movie Metropolis

The camaraderie between the two principal actors is almost as appealing as it was in Butch Cassidy. Full Review

December 13, 2006
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Vastly overrated. Full Review

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Facts

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    • Doyle Lonnegan: Your boss is quite a card player, Mr. Kelly; how does he do it?
    • Johnny Hooker/Kelly: He cheats.
    • Henry Gondorff/Mr. Shaw: Four jacks.
    • Doyle Lonnegan: You follow?
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The Sting Trivia

  • This song, composed by Scott Joplin, is the theme to which movie starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman?  Answer »
  • Paul Newman and Robert Redford acted together in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and what other movie?  Answer »
  • Finish this line from the Sound Of Music, When The_____ when the _______  Answer »
  • The following movies were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture in 1973. Which movie won the Oscar?  Answer »
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