
The Sting
A Novel Approach to Cinema
Soft Skull Press
Published on 17. May 2011
Book
Paperback/Softback
128 pages
978-1-59376-279-7 (ISBN)
Description
From Melville to Madoff, the Confidence Man is an essential American archetype. George Roy Hill's 1973 film "The Sting" treats this theme with a characteristic dexterity. The movie was warmly received in its time, winning seven Academy Awards, but there were some who thought the movie was nothing more than a slight throwback. Pauline Kael, among others, felt Hill's film was mechanical and contrived: a callow and manipulative attempt to recapture the box-office success of Robert Redford and Paul Newman's prior pairing, "Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid."
Matthew Specktor's passionate, lyric meditation turns "The Sting" on its head, on its side, and right-side-up in an effort to unpack the film's giddy complexity and secret, melancholic heart. Working off interviews with screenwriter David S. Ward and producer Tony Bill, and tacking from nuanced interpretation of its arching moods and themes to gimlet-eyed observation of its dizzying sleights-of-hand, Specktor opens "The Sting" up to disclose the subtle and stunning dimensions--sexual, political, and aesthetic--of Hill's best film. Through Specktor's lens, "The Sting" reveals itself as both an enduring human drama and a meditation on art-making itself, an ode to the necessary pleasure of being fooled at the movies.
Matthew Specktor's passionate, lyric meditation turns "The Sting" on its head, on its side, and right-side-up in an effort to unpack the film's giddy complexity and secret, melancholic heart. Working off interviews with screenwriter David S. Ward and producer Tony Bill, and tacking from nuanced interpretation of its arching moods and themes to gimlet-eyed observation of its dizzying sleights-of-hand, Specktor opens "The Sting" up to disclose the subtle and stunning dimensions--sexual, political, and aesthetic--of Hill's best film. Through Specktor's lens, "The Sting" reveals itself as both an enduring human drama and a meditation on art-making itself, an ode to the necessary pleasure of being fooled at the movies.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 165 mm
Width: 121 mm
Thickness: 9 mm
Weight
97 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-59376-279-7 (9781593762797)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
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E-Book
05/2011
Soft Skull
€11.49
Available for download
Persons
Matthew Skecktor is a former film executive for Tribeca Productions and 20th Century Fox. He is the author of the novels That Summertime Sound and American Dream Machine, and his writing has appeared in various periodicals, including Open City, Five Chapters, and Salon. He lives in Los Angeles.