The Sting
Alan Sepinwall

Review by Alan Sepinwall

The Sting

1973
Liked

Watched 04 Dec 2024

Sometimes, when I get to a classic very late, after having already seen all the movies it inspired in some way, the genius of the original is still palpable. At other times, though, they can't help but play like a bit of a cliche, even though they invented those cliches.

For whatever reason, I didn't get to either of the famous Newman and Redford (and George Roy Hill) collaborations until recently. Butch and Sundance definitely falls into that former category: a rip-roaring entertainment and concentrated shot of pure movie star superpower, even though it felt like I knew every beat of the story and every joke before they came.

While I enjoyed The Sting, it unfortunately fell into the latter group. I enjoyed, but definitely a film I think I’d have gotten a lot more out of if I’d seen it when I was younger, before 1)seeing a million things influenced by it, and 2)Between those million things and just being a person out in the world, having a pretty good sense ahead of time of how the con was ultimately going to play out. And a lot of this movie's impact comes from being surprised by the concluding sequence.

Still lots of fun to be had, even if Butch and Sundance does better by the two stars, both as individuals and as a team. But I definitely wish this was one of the oldies that my parents insisted I watch at some point as a kid, because I imagine I would have eaten it up.

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