The Sting (1973)

"I put it all on Lucky Dan to win, half a million dollars."  (Doyle Lonnegan)
"Not only are you a cheat, you're a gutless cheat as well." (Doyle Lonnegan)
"Luther said I could learn something from you.  I already know how to drink." (Johnny Hooker to Henry Gondorff)
"What was I supposed do? -Call him for cheating better than me, in front of the others." (Doyle Lonnegan)

I've heard the term "caper movie" as a standard genre recently and I thought I should go back and watch what I consider to be the original caper movie.  (Is it really the first caper movie.....?  Probably not.  But, if you have older suggestions...I am all ears.)

Caper movies for me are all about the con within the con.  It's all about making the audience "the mark", only the audience should know they have been taken at the end, not befuddled as to what actually happened.  Ok.  That seems simple enough.  But, it's actually an incredibly complicated and difficult bit of storytelling.  If you give away the con before the climax...the whole movie is ruined.  If you don't lay breadcrumbs and foreshadowing about the impending con, the whole thing falls flat as extremely anti-climactic.  I've seen this done in a variety of ways through many movies, but I think The Sting's solution of presenting the movie in segments like a good essay outline, complete with Act cards and wipes, is my favorite and extremely elegant.  Wipes give the audience a sense that even what they are being shown is possibly a con and The Cards lend legitimacy to each step of a plan that is known to the characters but not to us.

Here are some other things I love about "Caper" movies and The Sting in particular.  I love how all the good guys that we are cheering for are actually the bad guys.  (Their goal is to steal stuff after all.)  I love the signals that  are used to assemble a team.  In The Sting they use the classic three taps on the nose.  I love that nicknames are dropped without cause or explanation.  Some of my favorite nicknames come from con-artists grifters and Jazz musicians.  (Caper movies most of the time involve both.)

Oh I also think Robert Shaw is just great in everything.

Ratings:

Snake oil salesmen:  See it

On the lamb?:  See it

Got yourself a spiffy maroon pinstripe suit?:  Oh John Hooker...you be looking good.

Kid Twist?:  Harold Gould you are awesome.

Dicks:  Must see

On a scale from the ol' lookie loo to the Kansas City Shuffle, I give The Sting 4.2 out of 5 stars.