The Sting (1973) - film review

Illinois, 1936.  Johnny Hooker, a small time con artist, finds himself out of his league when he pilfers a wad of cash belonging to one of Chicago’s biggest racketeers, Doyle Lonnegan.  When his partner, Luther Coleman, is shot dead by Lonnegan’s henchmen, Johnny resolves to take his revenge on the gangster boss.  Allying himself with Henry Gondorff, a former associate of Coleman, he conceives an ingenious betting scam that will rob Lonnegan of half a million dollars.  What Johnny does not know is that the FBI have been trailing Lonnegan for some time and intend to use this latest caper to bring him to justice...

Whilst it divided critics as to its merits (and continues to do so), The Sting was one of the most successful American films of the 1970s.  A tongue-in-cheek and somewhat superficial homage to the gangster films of the 1930s, it raked in a fortune at the box office and almost swept the board at the 1974 Academy Awards ceremony.  It won seven Oscars, in the categories of Best Film, Best Director, Best Costumes, Best Art Direction, Best Music, Best Editing and Best Original Screenplay – a feat which is regarded by some as a con even more spectacular than the one depicted in the film.  

It is not hard to see why The Sting was so popular and has retained much of its appeal.  It is a slick, well-constructed caper piece which, with its stylish sets, costumes and sepia-toned photography evokes a nostalgic (and unrealistic) view of 1930s America.  The film reunites Robert Redford and Paul Newman, two of the biggest stars in Hollywood at the time, who had previously appeared together in another hit film, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), also directed by George Roy Hill.  The screenplay may not offer much room for character development but both actors turn in a respectable performance, and their subtle on-screen chemistry is one of the main reasons for the film’s success.

The Sting has plenty of style but it is somewhat short on substance and typifies the trend which Hollywood would follow, with commercial objectives taking ever greater precedence over artistic truth.  If you don’t look too closely, The Stings holds up pretty well, and even if you do notice its shortcomings it is still a highly entertaining film.   One positive thing to come out of the film was that it revived an interest in the work of Scott Joplin – a reworking of the composer’s ragtime music provides the film with its jaunty, albeit horribly anachronistic, score.   In 1983, a sequel of the film was released – The Sting II - with a different cast and crew, but this was a flop and plans to make a prequel were immediately dropped.

© James Travers 2008

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