Minneapolis The Sting

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Genre: Comedy, Drama
Release Date: 12/01/1973
Running Time: 129 mins
Director: George Roy Hill
Cast: Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Robert Shaw, Charles Durning, Ray Walston, Eileen Brennan, Harold Gould, John Heffernan, Dana Elcar, Jack Kehoe
Producer: Tony Bill, Julia Phillips, Michael S Phillips
Writer: David S Ward
Distributor: Universal Pictures
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Box Office

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Movie Title, Weekly Earnings, Total Earnings

The Sting

This Newman/Redford vehicle dominated the Oscars in 1974, but, looking at the film today, it hardly resembles a masterpiece. Although the many plot twists leading up to the titular sting are meant to be convoluted, an objective viewing reveals that they're actually altogether preposterous: Why does every character instantly recognize Henry Gondorff (Newman) as one of the country's premier con artists except the supposedly street-smart gangsters who work for the mark (Robert Shaw)? Meanwhile, music director Marvin Hamlisch's bouncy adaptations of Scott Joplin's piano rags manage to suck the almost otherworldly beauty out of the originals--an approach that typifies the movie's tendency toward production gloss over period substance. Nevertheless, after Redford, Newman, and director George Roy Hill's monstrous success with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in 1969, all they had to do was show up on the set and fart in order to have another box office behemoth on their hands--and they put far more effort into it than that. Indeed, The Sting is never less than engaging, and the dynamic duo once again displays the easygoing compatibility that has become the measuring stick for all other buddy pictures. The fact that this Best Picture-winner beat out far better movies (American Graffiti and Cries and Whispers, to name a couple) offers proof positive of the Academy's--and the nation's--world-weariness at the time. But it's hard to knock the film's principals for giving people the consummate professionalism they craved. (John Pribek) — John Pribek