Quote:
Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs  The Sting (1973)
Although there's a joy watching Robert Redford and Paul Newman play off each other as well as enjoyable turns from Robert Shaw and Eileen Brennan, not to mention Scott Joplin's highly memorable score and and a thirties setting which is recreated and photographed by Robert Surtees beautifully, something about The Sting failed to hit home.
I didn't feel it had that wow factor, story wise, to say it practically swept the board at the Oscars. However i do get the feeling that i will want to revisit this movie and it's two professional grifters, sometime in the future. |
The Sting is a surprising Oscars success because it's a film which I always find is great fun and extremely enjoyable, though not one which strikes me as some great cinematic achievement which people within the film industry think is worthy of great acclaim.
It was released in the same year as
The Exorcist, a film I consider to be a more innovative and groundbreaking piece of filmmaking because of its screenplay, direction, acting, and make-up effects.
As you said,
The Sting is extremely well filmed and the period setting is faithfully recreated. It could easily be dismissed as lightweight fluff, which is not a negative if it's very watchable, and I think it is.