The Sting

Friday night March 6 after golf, Jack, Sharon and I watched The Sting.

The Sting is a 1973 American caper film. It was directed by George Roy Hill, who had directed Paul Newman and Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). The screenplay by David S. Ward was inspired by real-life cons perpetrated by brothers Fred and Charley Gondorff. The story is documented by David Maurer in his 1940 book The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man.

Set in 1936, it involves a complicated plot by two professional grifters (Newman and Redford) to con a mob boss (Robert Shaw).

At the 46th Academy Awards, The Sting won seven Oscars, includig: Best Picture; Best Director; Best Original Screenplay; Best Art Direction; Best Costume Design; Best Film Editing, and; Best Music (Scoring: Original Song Score and Adaptation). It was also nominated for Best Actor – Robert Redford, Best Cinematography and Best Sound.

When it was over, Sharon said "Well, that hasn't aged well." I liked the movie more than she did and thought that it has aged pretty well. We need to go back and watch more of Robert Redford's movies. We watched Out of Africa last fall; it also won the Best Picture Oscar. When we toured the Nixon Presidential Library, we talked about seeing All The President's Men.