The Sting,

The Sting, USA 1973

If you asked ten people what was the best movie starring both Robert Redford and Paul Newman, I bet that nine of them would say Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Those nine people would be wrong, but it probably wouldn't be their fault. Most people either don't know about or have forgotten about The Sting. Those are the only two movies that starred Redford and Newman...I think. Now don't get me wrong, Butch and Sundance is an excellent movie, I just feel that The Sting holds up better after almost forty years. For anyone who hasn't seen it, The Sting is a story about two con men and the gambling scam they pull on an organized crime boss. It's set in 1930s Chicago and does a great job of capturing the atmostphere of that era. The art direction alone makes this film worth watching. From the costumes and sets to the Saturday Evening Post style title cards used throughout. The music was great too. The score has a ragtime feel that works to place the film in the era it is intended to represent, and it won the oscar for Best Musical Score. Other oscars for this picture: Best Picture, Best Director (Geroge Roy Hill, also directed Butch and Sundance), Best Art Direction, Costume Design, and Film Editing.

Like a good heist movie, you don't really know exactly what the con men are up to until everything is over. They did a good job of organizing the story so that the viewer has to keep guessing at what is going to happen. There are plots within plots and nothing is quite what it seems. If you want to watch a really good movie that is also a lot of fun, you can't do better than this.