How does it look among other nominees that year? How it fares half a century later - as a movie / in the career of it's director and stars? where do you place it in the lists of things...
I think it's a terrific bit of fun. Shaw and Brennan deserved Oscars that year. I actually think I like it more than Coppola's winning films sandwiched on either side of it.
It's an entertaining, fun movie.........probably 4th among the nominees though.......on merit it didn't deserve its win.....
This movie is important to me for taking one of those "great actors who can't or haven't pulled off comedy" - you know the list - and breaking that restriction for him. Newman had gotten some laughs in movies prior but that isn't the same thing - comedy and his brand didn't really co-exist much ........but to whatever extent they eventually did .......The Sting was a big part of that........
After this movie - a BP comedy winner that he toplines - he got funnier on screen and at times he got downright goofy (the great, foul-mouthed Slap Shot, the quirky odd Blaze, Hudsucker Proxy) - and he got looser and better as an actor and he had been great already....on the cusp of 50..........
I love the movie, I think it's highly entertaining, and given how successful it was, how they succeeded in basically recapturing the magic (no small task) of the first Hill/Newman/Redford movie, and given how it turned The Entertainer into an iconic piece of music, I think it's pretty tough to argue with its win.
All that said, it is my 4th favourite of the 4 nominees that I've seen from that year, and it sticks out pretty funnily amongst all the other Best Picture winners for a good 5 years prior and even more after.
Post by mikediastavrone96 on Jan 21, 2023 19:58:16 GMT
Very good movie, hell of a lot of fun, and stands well enough on its own to be more than just a makeup win for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (a superior movie). But it's hard to argue it over a defining horror film that somehow was also the biggest hit of its year or one of Ingmar Bergman's last masterpieces. And even though I'd probably take The Sting over American Graffiti, the latter feels like it's left a bigger footprint.
Post by PromNightCarrie on Jan 23, 2023 20:05:19 GMT
I look back and see it as a breath of fresh air when you assess what usually won the big prize in those days. And it's not even just that it is a break from everything else sweeping that era - I think it happens to be a very well-crafted film across the board. It's not the Godfather, but it does what it is meant to do perfectly and I have always loved this win.
