The Sting and other essential Robert Redford movies

Robert Redford had a very long string of iconic films but there’s something particularly special about The Sting.

Reuniting Redford with Paul Newman after the pair’s successful outing in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was just one element of The Sting’s creative and commercial achievement, not that there’s any point denying the potent mix of their easygoing chemistry.

An entertaining crime caper, the 1973 film also brought the two movie stars back together with George Roy Hill, who helmed Butch Cassidy, working from David S. Ward script that is often cited as a near-perfect screenplay.

The film is set in 1936, with America still reeling from the Great Depression. All through the film, you see hungry, homeless and desperate people in the background of street shots, and the historical context is also crucial to empathising with, essentially, criminals.

When you meet Hooker (Redford), he’s running a short con with his buddy Luther (Robert Earl Jones). The two trick a man out of an envelope of cash before they knew he was a courier for a New York crime boss named Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw).

When Lonnegan discovers one of his runners has been had, he sends assassins to do away with the poor schmuck he was tricked, and Hooker and Luther. Hooker only just gets away, and seeks out long-time conman Gondorff (Newman), a trusted friend of Luther.

Hooker is set on avenging Luther’s murder and the two set up a rarely used scam called “the wire”, an elaborate production involving dozens of people and a fake betting parlour. They lay the trap for Lonnegan through an off-books poker game on a luxury train before luring him for the big score.

Hooker is a low-level grifter with a penchant to blow it all on a spin of the roulette wheel, and he’s not into the big, violent stuff, so the audience is always on his side. The film also cleverly contrasts Lonnegan as a no-drink, no-girls fun-buster with the cavorting Hooker and imbibing Gondorff.

The charismatic combination of Redford and Newman, both with a roguish blue-eyed twinkle and a smile that could melt ice caps, would prove to be irresistible. They were equals in being able to hold the screen, and never diminish the other.

The caper has a long tradition in cinema, and the genre almost always sides with the characters pulling the con – the cleverer and more complex the better, as long as it stacks up.

The Sting, and its brilliant reveal at the end, influenced many of the capers to come. It knew exactly how much to show the audience, and how much to hold back so that the denouement will always satisfy.

There was a lyricism to the dialogue of The Sting, using slang and banter specific to the period and that grifter world, while the score was ragtime tunes by Marvin Hamlisch, who uses Scott Joplin’s The Entertainer.

They both add a jauntiness to everything, reminding the audience that they are, indeed, having a really good time while still maintaining a simmering conflict that two conmen could always end up scamming each other.

The onscreen bromance for the ages didn’t start out that way. Screenwriter Ward wrote in 2012 that he originally envisaged the Hooker character to be barely an adult, about 19 years old, which would’ve given Hooker and Gondorff more of a father-son dynamic.

“With Redford on board, we had to make Hooker older, but I think there remains something adolescent about him, he grows up over the course of the movie,” Ward said.

There was still some schooling to do behind the scenes too. Redford was chronically late to set, about 40 minutes every day. Eventually, Newman, who was a decade older, had enough and gave him a stern talking to. After that, Redford was only routinely 20 minutes late.

The film went on to be nominated for 10 Oscars, including Redford’s only Academy nod for acting, and won seven gongs. It was also a massive deal at the box office, grossing $US156 million, which is equivalent to over $US1 billion today.

The Sting is on Binge and digital rental

ICONIC REDFORD

All the President’s Men

The fallout from Watergate, Nixon and Vietnam was a great distrust in American institutions but Alan J. Pakula’s film adapted from Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward’s book was to revive faith that the pursuit of truth stands firm. An undeniable classic.

Stream: Digital rental

Three Days of the Condor

In this classic spy thriller, Robert Redford plays a CIA desk analysts who is inadvertently embroiled in a conspiracy plot when he discovers strange plot points in a novel. His team are murdered and he is on the run, desperate to clear his name and not get killed.

Stream: Digital rental

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Based on the true story of Wild West outlaws Butch Cassidy and Harry Longabaugh, who goes on the run after a botched train robbery. Redford only nabbed the role after Steve McQueen, Jack Lemmon and Warren Beatty turned it down, but it cemented his burgeoning stardom.

Stream: Disney+ and digital rental

The Way We Were

Considered by many to be the ultimate romantic drama, Redford and Barbra Streisand had palpable chemistry as Hubbell and Katie, two people from different backgrounds, with different temperaments and want different things out of life. It works until it doesn’t, but makes an enduring case for a love that’s right … for now.

Stream: Digital rental

The Old Man & the Gun

This was Redford’s last acting role (a previously filmed cameo for Avengers: Endgame was released after) and his second collaboration with director David Lowery. There’s a melancholy to his performance as Forrest Tucker, a real-life criminal and prison escape artist who, in his 70s, was still robbing banks.

Stream: Digital rental