The Sting: (1973)

The brilliance of The Sting lies in its structure. The film is divided into chapters with Saturday Evening Post-style title cards, signaling to the viewer that they are reading a storybook version of history. This "storybook" quality isn't just an aesthetic choice; it mirrors the "Big Store" con itself. Just as Gondorff (Paul Newman) and Hooker (Robert Redford) build a fake gambling den to deceive the villainous Doyle Lonnegan, the filmmakers build a stylized, ragtime-infused version of 1930s Chicago to deceive us.

The film also serves as a spiritual bookend to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid . Where that film examined the death of the outlaw through tragedy, The Sting examines the survival of the outlaw through . The Sting (1973)

By using Scott Joplin’s ragtime music (which was actually popular decades before the 1930s), the film creates a "fake" history that feels more real than the truth. It evokes a sense of that didn't exist in the actual Depression. In The Sting , the bad guys are clearly defined by their lack of "class," and the good guys are defined by their adherence to a strict, albeit illegal, code of ethics. The brilliance of The Sting lies in its structure