Monday, April 09, 2012

SCENE IT: A Game of Jacks



Its many narrative twists and tricks have been copied and stolen from here to eternity, still The Sting maintains its time-defying charm and entertainment values like few movies ever managed to. 

Director George Roy Hill leads The Sting with a light-hearted touch, presenting with what was then and still is now a much welcomed anomaly: a crime story that focuses on humor and characters instead of blood, violence and foul language. And it works! Why? Because of Newman & Redford. 

Those two act like they're on a different plane, and they are; always angling, scheming and keeping one step ahead of the villain as well as us all, fooling everyone all the way through an offbeat but surprisingly steady pace. AND being quite contagiously having a great time of it. This here scene, an addictive battle of wits and skills between two of Hollywood's all-time greatest both at the top of their game, is the perfect scene to hook anybody who's never seem this perpetual Top-100 dweller.

In today's Scene It, one of my personal favorite for as long as I can remember: The cheater's duel between Paul Newman's Henry Gondorf and Robert Shaw' Doyle Lonnergan.

No comments:

Post a Comment