"That's a nice-a donut."

Monday, September 12, 2005

The Sting (1973)

Things aren't quite what they used to be. Like when movie tickets used to cost a shiny nickel. And when our grandparents used to walk to school. Five miles. In the snow. Uphill. Both ways. And now, movie tickets cost seven dollars just for the matinee shows, and school kids take the school bus even if they live right across the street from their school. And, accordingly, they don't quite make movies like they used to.

Nowadays a movie is unlikely to be released if it doesn't star the latest hot, drunk, anorexic actress and an interchangeable, fast-talking, quipster of an actor in some generic tale that must be fast-paced (a shot must not, under any circumstances, last longer than one second), high on concept and low on substance. A car chase - or at the very least, a no-holds-barred fisticuffs - is generally essential. And don't forget the recycled pop music and the token minority character.

Enter: The Sting. Director George Roy Hill's classic tale about a pair of likeable confidence men aiming for the big score in post-Depression Chicago, calls to mind a bygone era without sentiment or sap, but with a knowing nod towards the past and a glimmer of hope for the future. From the very beginning, when the cast of characters is revealed on screen before the opening scene we know that this movie is different. If you spend too much time analyzing it, you will notice a few logical issues and that, really, it's not a very deep movie - there isn't much character development and doesn't provide any hidden or complex symbolism or meaning. It's really quite light-hearted in general, and best of all... it's fun. The near-perfect camaraderie between Paul Newman and Robert Redford hits lightning in a bottle again, arguably surpassing their collaboration (along with Hill) from four years before in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

To reduce the movie into a short plot summary doesn't quite do anybody any justice. Suffice to say, Johnny Hooker (Redford) is a young con being mentored by a wise old man named Luther (RobertEarl Jones). They team up for a fairly successful score, but unfortunately the mark is affiliated with a very powerful man named Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw). Lonnegan metes out revenge, and tragedy strikes, so Hooker heads off to Chicago and meets up with Henry Gondorff (Newman). The down-on-their-luck pair conspire to complete the ultimate heist and payback. This is among the first movies that featured a relatively big twist, before the big! surprise! craze hit in the late 1990s after The Usual Suspects and The Sixth Sense, among others.

Shaw, probably most famous as the cavalier shark hunter Quint in Jaws, is exceptional as the big kahuna. I was shocked to discover that he received no awards acclaim for his role. He is especially good at speech intonations and creating emotion and change of pace in his voice, making me think that he would have been a great animation voice actor in today's world. A high-stakes poker scene between Gondorff and Lonnegan is first-rate in almost every aspect: the timing, the camera movements, the acting, and especially the tension.

I also love the touch that title cards, separating the movie into pieces, bring. With titles like "The Players," "The Hook," and so forth, it calls to mind a dramatic play. And in fact, perhaps the best compliment that can be given to a film is that it would have worked perfectly as a silent picture. The great theme music that accompanies the journey is akin to a live orchestra that may have played during a silent film. A version of Joplin's piano rag, "The Entertainer," easily helped the film win the award for best original song score or adaptation.

Sure, it isn't exactly a recent film; the Academy-award winning best picture is over 30 years old and dates before the MTV era. But it calls to mind a simpler time when going to the movie didn't break the bank, when going to school was an adventure. And when originality and storytelling bested formulaic, packaged tripe. No, they don't make movies like The Sting anymore.

The Verdict: A.

Michael Bentley 3:01 PM

"That's a nice-a donut."

Monday, September 12, 2005

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