The Sting

Rating: 4/5

Prior to seeing The Sting, I knew very, very little about. I could recognize it by the cover, I knew it starred Paul Newman and Robert Redford, but that was honestly about it. I also had no idea I would like it as much as I did.

Thinking back to all the classic movies I've seen in my lifetime, and believe me, there have been a lot, I was trying to recall whether or not I'd ever seen a Paul Newman film before, and I as best as I could remember, I don't believe I had. I'm sad to say that I mostly new him as the face I saw on my salad dressings. I of course knew he was a famous actor, and could name the titles of some of the movies he was in, but beyond that, I didn't have much else I could say I knew about him. Now, that's all just a very long winded way of me saying that I was wonderfully surprised that he became my favorite part of The Sting, because I had assumed it would be Robert Redford. Redford is fantastic as well, and the two leads' chemistry together is great, but it was Newman's scenes that really captured my attention. His cool demeanor, devastatingly handsome good looks, and ability to dominate a scene all made watching The Sting that much better. I'm sure with a story as compelling as this, it would've been fine had another actor been in his place, but there's no way it would've been nearly as fun.

Beyond the performances, what I absolutely loved was how The Sting transitioned from scene to scene, with title cards that appeared pulled straight from a book. In all the Best Picture winning films I'd seen leading up to this, I'd never experienced anything like it, and it added a wonderful sense of charm and whimsy to the movie. It's the main thing that comes to mind when I think about why I enjoyed The Sting so much.

In all fairness, it should be said that at this point in the Oscar Best Picture marathon I did, I definitely was experiencing some genre fatigue, meaning that I had watched so many dramatic films in close proximity, that any film with even the slightest bit of levity was a welcome relief. This very much could have impacted how much I liked The Sting. I will be revisiting it again in the not too distant future, so I will be very curious what I'll think of it a second time around, though I truly think I'll still love it.

1974 Best Picture Winner - The Sting

1974 Best Director Director - George Roy Hill

1974 Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced Winner - David S. Ward

1974 Best Art Direction-Set Decoration Winners - Henry Bumstead & James W. Payne

1974 Best Costume Design Winner - Edith Head

1974 Best Film Editing Winner - William Reynolds

1974 Best Music, Scoring Original Score and/or Adaptation Winner - Marvin Hamlisch