It’s never fun to
get conned, but you have to admit it is loads of fun to see professional con
artists at work. Whereas today any moron with a laptop can exhort money from
gullible people by pretending to be a Nigerian prince in need of quick cash in
return for a fortune, there was a time when a good con required a team of
expert hustlers, hours of preparation, and one devious plan B in case the whole
thing went up in flames. George Roy Hill’s The
Sting (1973) depicts such a con featuring one of the best on-screen duo in
movie history: Paul Newman and Robert Redford, reuniting with Hill a few years
after working on another classic, Butch
Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969).
When watching a
movie about a con job, it is almost as though the filmmakers are the con
artists and the audience is the mark. The objective of the screenwriters and
the director is to have the con artists in the movie pull off their job without
the audience knowing exactly how they are doing it. If the audience can’t see
that ending coming, and if that ending is particularly clever, then the
filmmakers have succeeded. When I rented The
Sting I went in more or less cold, just knowing it is a classic involving a
con and two great actors at the top of their game. At one point I had a vague
idea of what they were doing, but was still somewhat surprised by the last
reveal and was very pleased with how they pulled it off.
Set in 1936
Illinois, and making great use of ragtime music by Scott Joplin, the film
focuses on the relationship between grifter Johnny Hooker (Redford) and renowned
con man Henry Gondorff (Newman). Hooker desperately needs Gondorff after he has
pulled a very profitable con on a numbers racket courier who unfortunately
works for crime boss Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw). Lonnegan doesn’t take kindly
to being swindled and has Hooker’s partner in the con murdered.
If Hooker was a
violent criminal he would probably retaliate by taking out Lonnegan’s crew one
by one in bloody gun battles, but Hooker is a thief and therefore he retaliates
in the only way he can: by taking even more money from Lonnegan. Alone he
cannot do much, but with help from the great Gondorff and a large crew he just
might be able to walk away with his life and fat load of cash. Unfortunately
when he meets Gondorff what he sees is a man passed out from too much drinking,
hiding from the FBI, and unsure if he has what it takes to pull off a big con.
For the sake of
Hooker’s late partner Gondorff agrees to take on the risky venture. They begin
working on a scam known as “the wire,” which involves a crew of con artists who
create a phony off-track betting parlour. The whole system is rather
complicated, but what matters is that it will convince Lonnegan to invest a
fortune, which the crew will snatch away from him at a precise moment.
In order to reach
that moment many things need to go right, such as Gondorff getting in on a high
stakes poker game aboard a train and taking a lot of money from Lonnegan. That
entire train sequence is extremely entertaining, from the moment Newman arrives
late to the game explicitly saying he was taking a crap, to Lonnegan realizing
this bum has cheated at the game. Unfortunately Lonnegan can’t do anything
about that, because he was cheating too. What’s he going to do? Accuse him of
being a better cheater?
One of the great
pleasures of The Sting is watching
Newman and Redford work together and having as good chemistry as they had on Butch Cassidy. Redford’s Hooker is a
brash young man, whereas Redford’s Gondorff is older, wiser, and more careful
when dealing with a man like Lonnegan. Hooker has his doubts about Gondorff
when they first meet, but although he is rusty Gondorff quickly shows him he is
still one of the best. It’s a shame these two didn’t work together more often.
They were not present for The Sting II,
so of course it failed.
Watching Hooker
and Gondorff work the con together you of course know they are going to get
away with it, but the filmmakers put enough obstacles and danger in their way to
instil doubt in the audience’s mind. If they were stealing money from
hard-working people you would definitely resent these two criminals, but since
they are conning an even worse criminal you are cheering for them to pull off
the crime. As for the filmmakers, they pull off one beautiful con on the
audience and absolutely deserve their money.
Comments
Post a Comment