OST- The Sting

DSCN3892This was 80 cents.  I knew what I was getting into when I bought this.  I thought at the time I would enjoy writing a post about this.  1973 the sting

IMDB page for The Sting

The Sting, directed by George Roy Hill, came out in 1973.  It features a great cast with Paul Newman, Robert Redford, and Robert Shaw as well as supporting work by Charles Dunning, Ray Walston, and Eileen Brennan.  Fresh off their performance in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,  Newman and Redford play con men who use an elaborate scam to rip off Shaw.  The film was wildly successful, winning seven Oscars that year, including, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Picture.

I am mixed about the picture.  On one hand, I really , really like both Newman and Shaw.  They are two of my favorite actors.  On the other hand, I can not divorce myself from the reality that it seems like an awful elaborate and overblown plan to milk someone out of money.  I mean, it seems like too much effort, time, and money just to get some Benjamin’s.  I mean, what would Nino Brown do?  Not this.3076041268f069bd6c85937a920d80cb

The soundtrack was arranged, composed, and performed by Marvin Hamlisch.  For his efforts, he won an Oscar for Best Original Song or Adaption Score.  The same year, he also won Oscars for Best Original Score and Best Original Song for his work with The Way We Were.  This was the beginning of what would lead to joining the EGOT club (winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony).  To take it one step further, Hamlisch also has a Pulitzer Prize.Marvin-Hamlisch-1944-2012

The soundtrack is rag time music for the most part.  about half the songs are Hamlisch’s and the other half are Scott Joplin’s.  Joplin’s music had been experiencing a renaissance of sorts in the 1970’s.  It was the director’s son who had played a Joplin record for his father the previous year.  The music is predictable but does a good job complimenting the film, even if rag time was not popular in the 1930’s when the movie was set.DSCN3893

For a sample, I struggled with this for a bit as most of the songs sound the same.  In the end, I went with Joplin’s “Solace” which was a favorite of the director.  Anyone familiar with Bioshock: Infinite will be familiar with this.  This version features some scant orchestration along with the eerie piano.bioshock-infinite-27323-1920x1080

c2dk0altocpv9z03597Meh.  I mean it is a rather one dimensional soundtrack.  As far as the movie, I find the plot far fetched but I like the actors enough to watch when it is on TV.

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