OKAY GUYS I WATCHED THE STING

[dsudis]

I don't actually know what to say about it, even aside from not wanting to spoil anyone who's left on the internet unspoiled for a movie from 1973, because everything I've posted about watching Robert Redford movies so far has gotten the unanimous reply WHY HAVEN'T YOU WATCHED THE STING YET

Comments

[inmyriadbits]

If you are even vaguely interested in con artistry / translating the slang they use in the movie, you should go read The Big Con by David Maurer next.! It's this amazing book published in 1940 by a linguist, based on his friendships with con men formed while doing research on the linguistics of criminal subcultures (the guy wrote a book on the slang on pickpockets, okay). Anyway, he wrote a whole different book about the linguistics; bits of that come up in the book, but The Big Con is more like the popular science version -- i.e., readable by non-academics. He goes into the history of con artistry in the US, breaks down three "big cons" (one of which is the wire, which they pull off in the film), and goes into the inner workings of the mark and the con artists. He has about a million wonderful anecdotes and imparts a ton of information in a very charming way. Even 75 years later, it's still considered a must-read for anybody looking to understand con artistry. It's like the lovely child of a linguistics course, a biography, and a criminology text, but reads like a novel. It's brilliant.

What does any of this have to do with the movie? Well, the screenwriter based the structure of the story, the slang used, and even some of the names off Maurer's book.

The Big Con is the one book I always recommend to everyone. Especially if they liked The Sting. :)

[dsudis]

Oooh, that does sound like fun! I shall put it on my list at the library. :)