The Sting

Seven Oscars – including Best Picture and Best Director – say it all: this is one of the defining classics of American cinema. Add to that the unforgettable pairing of Robert Redford and Paul Newman, Marvin Hamlisch’s superb jazz-inflected score, and the film’s status as one of the finest heist movies ever made.

The Sting is an effortlessly stylish crime comedy set in the 1930s, centred on two con men plotting an elaborate scam designed to take down a powerful gangster. George Roy Hill’s film dazzles with its elegance and keeps the audience off balance with a narrative twist that makes it impossible to know until the very end whether its criminals have pulled off a spectacular triumph or suffered a painful defeat.

A screening of the film can also serve as a tribute to Robert Redford, who died in September last year. For his performance as Johnny Hooker, the actor received the first Oscar nomination of his career.

Marcin Grudziąż

George Roy Hill (1921–2002) – American director and screenwriter, known for creating unconventional genre films that portrayed outsiders and eccentrics. He first gained widespread recognition with the western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. His greatest success came with the crime comedy The Sting, which won seven Academy Awards, including Best Director. Despite commercial success, Hill remained an underrated filmmaker. His longtime star, Robert Redford, once said: “He was a rebel who went against the grain and that is why he never received the recognition he deserved as a filmmaker”.

16th American Film Festival Catalogue