by Chris Marshall:
The Sting seems in
many ways like a “forgotten” Best Picture winner, but maybe that’s all in my
head. Ever since I memorized the Best Picture winners in order for reasons too boring to mention here, it tends to trip me up. All too often I think of it as “the
movie that won between the Godfathers.”
It deserves a better reputation than that, of course, and I
realize that for many people, it has one. I mean, it’s Rich Eisen’s favorite movie, and that has to be worth something. And it’s ranked #100 in the IMDB Top
250.
Ok, so maybe it is
all in my head. Nevertheless, I do feel it’s talked about less than the
surrounding winners. If you’re not familiar at all with the movie, it’s set in
the 1930s, with Robert Redford and Paul Newman playing con men who are trying
to pull off the scam of the century. I’ll say nothing more about the plot
because watching everything unfold at the end was the great pleasure of the
film, and I think it would lose a great deal if it was revealed.
