100 Greatest Movies of All Time...That I Own. # 10 ~ The Sting

Things just got real.

: )

So here we go... the 10 Greatest Movies of All Time!!!

Starting things off, a genre of film I've mentioned before for really enjoying.  The Con. The Caper. The Heist.

The Sting.

If you want to run a good slight of hand heist film, you have to have great actors and surround them with a great script where the trickery is believable enough that even though you know the con is on... you can still get sucked right in and maybe not see all the twists coming yourself.

I'm sure that such movies existed before The Sting, but I am also guessing they are fairly inconsequential in the history of cinema.  So to all the films that have come since, they all owe a debt of gratitude to this film for setting the blueprint for how to deliver a great story.

The story is fairly simple for something that turns out so complex.  A young con man (Robert Redford) seeks tutelage from a veteran (Paul Newman) when a mutual friend of theirs is killed by a bad dude (Robert Shaw).  From there, the two embark on an elaborate scheme to take the man for all he's got.

So simple.

The director, George Roy Hill started wisely enough by recapturing the magic he found with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid by bringing Newman and Redford together again.  Their chemistry onscreen is fun to watch.

From there, they simply add layers to the deception and weave a bunch of wonderful character actors in supporting roles.

If you've never seen this one, give it a try.