Review of The Sting (1973) by Paul_Cawston — 15 Feb 2021

The Sting is the equivalent of Windows 95, foundational and necessary for subsequent follow ups but unless you have nostalgia for it, or just really wanna play the original solitaire, there's no reason to go back to it.

The Sting is a heist movie, where several con men try to con the man who's never been conned. Con-versely I hope you haven’t seen Oceans 11 because if you have then congratulations you've seen The Sting.

Oceans 11 achieves everything that The Sting sets out to do in a more concise, well edited manner. The only thing The Sting has on Oceans 11 is it's old retro style charm, title cards appear after each act like older films, which is an odd tradition thinking about it.

To anyone who claims that modern attention spans are low, just know that moves used to have breaks in them. Other than the scheduled potty breaks, the movie also utilizes a traditional, minimal editing style throughout the movie.

Simple wipes are used everywhere, horizontal wipes, vertical wipes even some unique shapes that should never be used outside myfirstproject.mov. Judging by my review score you can tell that I am personally not a fan of this older style of filmmaking.

My favorite directors consist of Edgar Wright and Steven Kubrick, directors that heavily utilize distinct and direct cuts creating a great sense of flow and cohesion with every film they make, older editing styles just don't have that.

There's a good movie just below the surface of The Sting, it's just covered in a thick layer of dust caused by age. With some polish, modern editing software and brighter color palette The Sting could be a good movie.

Just spit balling ideas, set it in Las Vegas, expand the cast a little bit, focus more on the plan and less so the execution and you have an amazing film. Wonder if any film like that exists...