The Sting
Classic con operation
The Sting is a 1973 American film starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford as con men who orchestrate an elaborate scheme to swindle a crime boss.
The title refers to the climactic moment of a confidence game—when the mark is finally cheated.
The film won seven Academy Awards including Best Picture.
- trickDeliberate deception
- conArgument against
- confidence manFraud who gains trust
- buddy filmGenre featuring paired protagonists
- misdirectionIntentional focus manipulation
Robert Redford · Paul Newman · Butch Cassidy · suit · grift · swindle · con artists · big score · inside job · train · double-cross · ragtime · scheme · Academy Award · Scott Joplin · fraud · scam · poker face
- Heist FilmsOcean's Eleven, The Italian Job, Inside Man, Baby Driver, Topkapi
- 70s CinemaThe Godfather, Star Wars, Taxi Driver, Chinatown, Apocalypse Now
- Oscar WinnersTitanic, Forrest Gump, The Godfather, Gladiator, Schindler's List
- 1973Watergate, oil crisis, Roe v Wade, Yom Kippur War, Skylab
The Stingfull disclosure
Withholding no information
transparency · straightforwardness · candor · plain dealing · open communication
The Stingarmed robbery
Theft with weapon threat
smash-and-grab · brute force · mugging · frontal assault · pickpocketing
The StingSerpico
The French Connection · Dirty Harry · The Untouchables · Bullitt · police procedural
sting, string, stingy, stinging, stung, stings, stinger, instigate, stingers