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Film Critic Corner

Mr. Tim Spears resides in Tucson, AZ.  Trustee emeritus of the CFTF, Tim shares his knowledge and love of the film medium in our Film Critic Corner.

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The Sting

This is a wonderful entertainment in the old Hollywood studio tradition and a perfect beginning for this series.  The Sting (1973) is the second film teaming up Paul Newman and Robert Redford with director George Roy Hill and producer Darrell Zanuck Jr.  Their first, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), was a celebration of, and debunking of the myth of the Wild West at the end of the lawless frontier.

The Sting is set during another lawless age, the depths of the Depression, when the mob had the law over a barrel thanks to prohibition and bribery.  Confidence men and grifters vied with big time mobsters to take the poor citizens (or marks).  The film is divided into chapters announcing the various connivances, the actors roles are based on real historical characters and cons (many elaborate), and the story is assembled from a study of urban criminology by David Maurer, The Big Con, first published in 1940.  Although it is not a narrative tale it is a worthy read for those interested in studying the still relevant world of the Ponzi Scheme, with Bernie Madoff the most recent high profile practitioner of the art.

This film has been a favorite of mine and I always find new things to enjoy when I catch it again. I would like to recommend several other movies for those who share my enthusiasm:

Ocean’s Eleven (1960) has a similar structure with Sinatra’s Rat Pack buddies as the crew taking out the mob run Las Vegas casinos.  It hums along fueled the playful, loose banter of the ensemble, who are obviously drinking buddies.  Although it doesn’t have the level of craft of The Sting, ostensibly directed by Sinatra who couldn’t be bothered with multiple takes and kept the bar on set stocked, it is worth a sitting.  Stephen Soderberg’s Oceans 11-13 (2001- ) are an updating of the story to reflect the new more slick, corporate Vegas.  I enjoy several of these (Oceans 12 goes to Europe and loses the Vegas juice somehow) as they are better films than the original and benefit from jazzy soundtracks.

Another ensemble worthy of mention is the post Monty Python film A Fish Called Wanda (1988) which sends up the Brits at every opportunity and has a top drawer ensemble; Jamie Lee Curtis is at her comedic finest and Kevin Klein takes his role as anarchist hit man to absurd heights.  Not to be missed.

David Mamet has explored the roles of deception and connivance over a fascinating career.  House of Games (1987) with Joe Mantegna and the amazing Ricky Jay (a historian of all aspects of gambling, etc.) is a satisfying study of the con which, like The Sting, strings the viewer along with the mark.  The Spanish Prisoner (1997) also explores this world from the victim’s perspective (one of Steve Martin’s best roles) and is also recommended.

One last pick:  Orson Welles’ F for Fake (1974), for my money is the most entertaining and confusing of his films.  It is one in which he breaks down the barrier between audience and presenter in order to entertain the audience with the tales of several brilliant scam artists, Clifford Irving (whose scam at the expense of Howard Hughes has become part of the HH myth!) and the forger Elmyr de Hory who could make more convincing Picasso and Modigliani paintings than the artists, revealing the gullibility and greed of the so called experts.  In the end he turns the spot light back on the audience (as all good magicians do) and educates with one last trick.  Like The Sting he reaches out to touch the audience and includes them in the scam, which is the illusion at the heart of cinema.