I saw The Sting early yesterday afternoon on Sundance and then rewatched late last night.
I enjoyed it. Thr script is clever with interesting twists.
The twist with the phony FBI agents is confusing. Hooker (Redford) seemed clueless when he’s arrested and brought to the office. Was Gondorff (Newman) testing Hooker with the FBI offer to betray his partner for immunity?
I do appreciate the need to Con the corrupt cop (Charles Durning) into believing Hooker was shot dead.
The phony FBI raid on the betting parlor is a nice twist. That was the only way to keep Lonnegan from taking back his huge bet by force.
Nitpick
I don’t agree with Hooker rejecting the money. He’s going to need cash to relocate and start a new life. Hooker is supposed to be dead and he can’t risk being seen alive by the wrong people.
I get it. We’re supposed to believe Hooker doesn’t give a damn about money. It makes a strong statement that he onlys wants revenge for Luther’s death.
How much do you like The Sting? Any favorite scenes?
One of my facourite films ever, if not actually THE favourite. Just so enjoyable from start to finish and really sharp, clever and at times funny. Also looks great. I’ve heard the score is completely anachronistic, but who cares when it fits so well eh?
He has to put on a show for Sneider (the cop) to make it convincing.
Oh and possibly my favourite laugh in the film comes when Gondorf is practising his card shuffling and manipulation moves, and he fluffs the riffle shuffle and sprays the cards everywhere. The look on Hooker’s face is priceless.
Not long after there’s some quality toilet humour when Gondorf, pretending to be inebriated, burps at the poker game. Another one that always makes me chuckle.
I think Hooker’s confusion when “arrested” by the phony FBI agents is genuine - he really doesn’t know they’re part of the con. Gondorff deliberately keeps Hooker in the dark about this because he needs Hooker’s authentic reactions to sell the deception to both Lonnegan and Lt. Snyder. This isn’t exactly a test of loyalty, but rather a manipulation - Gondorff knows that if Hooker knew the FBI agents were fake, he might inadvertently give the game away through his behavior.
ETA: Do we need to spoiler things like the above? I forget the etiquette on this. It’s an old movie but still, some may not have seen it.
Floyd: Doyle, I know I gave him four threes! He had to make a switch! We can’t let him get away with that. Doyle Lonnegan: What was I supposed to do, call him for cheating better than me in front of the others?
My take is that the feds at the betting spot scene is to keep Lonegan off all their backs, and the feds in the warehouse scene is to get Sneider to help them. I assume that Hooker was in on it all along, he had to have blanks in his gun and dye packs in his mouth, and they couldn’t take a chance on him doing something wild or unpredictable.
As far as the nitpick goes, he knew he’d blow the money with his compulsive gambling, which would put them all at risk.
It’s a good theory, but I don’t think so. These are professional con men. Hooker may be new to big cons, but I have to think he can be trusted with this aspect of the plan. It’s just another play. Besides, if Gondoff kept Hooker in the dark (at least initially) and he reacted unpredictably, it could have blown up the whole thing.
Among the many things I love about The Sting is that until the very final moments you don’t really know who is on whose side. It really is one of the most perfect films ever made.
No - the OP starts with the words “Spoiler Warning” and anyone who hasn’t seen this 50 year old movie and is worried about spoilers shouldn’t be reading a thread specifically about spoilers for this 50 year old movie. What use is an entire thread of blurred text?
And whenever I’d see Charles Dierkop in something (incl. his turn in the Trek ep. “Wolf in the Fold”), I’d always wonder what Don Shula (Miami Dolphins head coach back then) was doing moonlighting as an actor.
One of my favorite movies of all time, and my absolute favorite Robert Redford movie.
But I still don’t get the appeal of the indoor Carousel. Was that supposed to be some big thrill for the prostitutes or what? It just always seemed odd to me.
Maybe because it wasn’t in front of the mark, but Gondoff did keep Hooker in the dark about the black-gloved bodyguard hired to protect him from Salino. It could be he was let in on the fake FBI agents (unseen) and that they were part of the blow off shortly before the actual sting.
I’ve enjoyed watching The Sting many times over, it’s a great movie, but… the only aspect that strains my suspension of disbelief is this: The entire scam- dozens of people acting their roles, and especially the elaborate fake horse racing casino (or whatever it’s called") had to cost of lot of money. Where did the funds come from?