Search - The Sting on DVD

MPAA Rating: PG Content Advisory: Mild Violence, Adult Situations, Questionable for Children, Profanity Movie Release: 1973 DVD Release: 03/31/1998 Format: DVD - Pan and Scan Audio Tracks: English, French, Spanish Subtitles: English, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 2 hrs 9 mins Studio: Universal Studios Members Wishing: 43 Genres: Crime, Period Film, Crime Comedy, Gangster Film, Buddy Film See Also: The Sting [Special Edition], The Sting [HD DVD]

Four years after setting box offices ablaze in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Paul Newman, Robert Redford, and director George Roy Hill re-teamed with similar success for The Sting. Redford plays Depression-era confidence trickster Johnny Hooker, whose friend and mentor Luther Coleman (Robert Earl Jones) is murdered by racketeer/gambler Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw). Hoping to avenge Luther's death, Johnny begins planning a "sting" -- an elaborate scam -- to destroy Lonnegan. He enlists the aid of "the greatest con artist of them all," Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman), who pulls himself out of a drunken stupor and rises to the occasion. Hooker and Gondorff gather together an impressive array of con men, all of whom despise Lonnegan and wish to settle accounts on behalf of Luther. The twists and surprises that follow are too complex to relate in detail -- suffice to say that you can't cheat an honest man, and that you shouldn't accept everything at face value. The Sting became one of the biggest hits of the early '70s; grossing 68.5 million dollars during its first run, the film also picked up seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Adapted Score for Marvin Hamlisch's unforgettable setting of Scott Joplin's ragtime music. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Paul Newman - Henry Gondorff/Mr. Shaw
Robert Redford - Johnny Hooker/Kelly
Robert Shaw - Doyle Lonnegan
Charles Durning - Lt. William Snyder
Ray Walston - Singleton

For a film that won the Academy award for Best Picture in 1973, one would think that Universal Home Video would have put more energy into its DVD release. Instead, The Sting is as bare bones as a DVD can be. Released in full-frame standard format (1:33) and mono audio, the disc has absolutely no extras on it whatsoever. In all fairness to Universal, though, the disc was released in 1998 before supplemental material became commonplace. Though the picture quality looks sharper than the film version seen on television, it's merely the DVD quality viewers are seeing; this is a transfer from the same fading interpositive, and dirt spots can periodically be seen on the print. Fans of the film can only hope that Universal will release a collector's edition in the near future. ~ Arthur Borman, All Movie Guide