You’ve seen the poster. Two of the most handsome men to ever grace a 70mm screen, leaning in with a smirk, sporting fedoras and a look that says they’re about to take you for everything you’re worth. It’s iconic. Honestly, if you haven’t watched The Sting movie Robert Redford and Paul Newman masterpiece lately, you’re missing out on the literal blueprint for every heist and caper film made in the last fifty years.
But there’s a weird thing about how we remember it.
Most people talk about The Sting as the ultimate "buddy movie." We lump it in with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid because, well, it’s the same stars and the same director, George Roy Hill. But if you actually sit down and watch it, the dynamic is totally different. It isn’t really a "bromance" in the modern sense. It’s a mentor-student relationship that’s actually kinda prickly.
The Robert Redford Role Most People Misunderstand
In 1973, Robert Redford was becoming the biggest star on the planet. He was coming off Jeremiah Johnson and The Way We Were. He could have played any suave, untouchable lead he wanted. Instead, he took the role of Johnny Hooker, a small-time grifter who is, frankly, kind of a mess.
Hooker isn’t a genius. He’s impulsive. He blows his share of a $11,000 con (which was a fortune in 1936) on a rigged roulette wheel in a single night. He’s the reason his partner, Luther Coleman, gets killed by the mob. The whole movie is basically Hooker trying to outrun his own screw-ups while begging Henry Gondorff (Newman) to teach him how to be a "big con" man.
Here is the kicker: Robert Redford almost didn't do the movie.
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David S. Ward wrote the script while he was basically a nobody working on educational films. He initially envisioned the character of Henry Gondorff as a minor, slovenly, overweight side character. When Newman saw the script and wanted in, the role was Beefed up. But Redford was hesitant. He actually insisted on a "master director" because he felt the script was so complex it would fall apart in the hands of a rookie. He was right.
Why the "Sting" Is Actually About Vengeance, Not Money
The movie is set in 1936 Chicago. It’s the Great Depression. Everyone is broke, and everyone is looking for an edge. But Johnny Hooker isn't in it for the cash. He wants to destroy Doyle Lonnegan, the Irish mob boss played with terrifying, quiet menace by Robert Shaw.
Lonnegan is a great villain because he’s not a cartoon. He’s a man with a limp and a massive ego. Interestingly, Shaw’s limp wasn't in the script. He had torn his ACL playing handball at the Beverly Hills Hotel just days before filming. Instead of recasting, George Roy Hill just told him to incorporate it. It became one of the most memorable physical traits of the character.
The Music That Shouldn't Have Worked
You know the tune. The Entertainer. It’s a Scott Joplin ragtime piece that became a massive hit because of this movie. Marvin Hamlisch won an Oscar for the score, and Joplin (who had been dead since 1917) suddenly became a household name again.
But historically? It makes no sense.
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Ragtime was popular in the 1900s and 1910s. By 1936, the world had moved on to big band swing and jazz. Using Scott Joplin in a movie set in the mid-30s is a total anachronism. But Hill didn't care. He wanted the movie to feel like a "Saturday Evening Post" cover come to life—nostalgic, stylized, and slightly artificial. He even used old-fashioned Universal logos and "iris" shots (where the screen closes in a circle) to mimic 1930s filmmaking. It shouldn't work. It’s a 1970s movie, imitating 1930s style, using 1910s music.
Somehow, it’s perfect.
The Lawsuit That Clouded the Win
The Sting was a juggernaut. It won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It was the first Universal film to win the big prize since All Quiet on the Western Front in 1930. But behind the scenes, things got messy.
David Maurer, an academic who wrote a book called The Big Con in 1940, sued for plagiarism. He claimed the movie took way too much from his real-life accounts of the Gondorff brothers (who were real tricksters). Universal eventually settled for $600,000.
The screenwriter, David Ward, was furious. He maintained that while he used Maurer's book for research along with many others, the plot was his own. Settlement or not, the "Big Con" terminology—the wire, the shut-out, the sting—entered the public lexicon because of this film.
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What You Should Look For on a Re-Watch
If you’re going to revisit the movie, pay attention to the "FBI" office.
There’s a scene where the FBI agents (who are actually just more con men in the "big con") are briefing a corrupt cop. If you look closely at the office, it looks... cheap. The walls are thin. The furniture is sparse. It looks like a stage set. That’s because, in the context of the story, it is a stage set. The movie drops clues everywhere that the audience is being conned right alongside Lonnegan.
Another fun fact: The scene where Newman shuffles cards for the first time? He couldn't actually do the professional "bridge" shuffle required for a master gambler. Those are actually the hands of John Scarne, a famous magician and gambling consultant, doing the work in a close-up.
Actionable Insights for the Modern Viewer
- Watch for the "Tell": Pay attention to the nose-tap. It's the secret signal among the grifters. Once you see it, you'll realize how much communication is happening in plain sight.
- Analyze the Structure: The movie is divided into chapters with title cards. Notice how each chapter introduces a specific "piece" of the machinery required to pull off the final trick.
- Compare to Modern Heists: Watch Ocean's Eleven or Better Call Saul right after. You’ll see exactly where they got their "playbook" from. The idea of the "reliable narrator" being a lie started here.
The real magic of The Sting movie Robert Redford and Paul Newman created is that it doesn't try to be "deep." It’s an entertainment machine. It’s about the joy of the game. It reminds us that sometimes, the best way to win isn't to be the strongest person in the room—it's to be the person who controls what everyone else thinks they’re seeing.
To get the full experience, look for the 4K restoration released recently. The colors—those warm, rusty browns and reds—look better than they did in the theaters in '73. It's a masterclass in production design that still holds up.