MovieChat Forums > The Sting (1973) Discussion > I find it hard to sympathize with the gr...

I find it hard to sympathize with the grifters at the beginning

posted 8 years ago by fountaincap
3 replies | jump to latest

It just so happens that we come upon our protagonists as they rob a corrupt gangster and so we root for them in that instance. But then I thought of all the times they must have pulled the same stunt on innocent people. Then at Luther's house, his wife scolds their son for cheering the arrest of Machine Gun Kelly, an armed robber and kidnapper.

I realize, it's a movie and we just have to roll with it, but the criminal behavior the protagonists exhibited in the beginning stood in contrast with how likable they are for the rest of the movie.

Anyone else feel the same way about The Sting or other movies?

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] MNRebecca (769) 6 years ago

The time setting (the Depression) is a key plot element in movies like THE STING and PAPER MOON. Anybody who has enjoyed a post-WWII standard of living may have some serious studying to do before assessing pre-prosperity behavior.

[–] strntz (12233) 6 years ago

It's the nature (and magic) of movies that we root for those whose story we are privy to. Often, the protagonists are often lawbreakers or worse.

One of the very best examples of this is one of my very favorite movies of all time - the counter-western Unforgiven. We see the life of a reformed "murderer of women and children" and root for him. Yes, he's changed through the interventions of his pious but now departed wife, but when things go wrong at the end and he's in a fight with the local law, we still root for him (very undescriptive of what happens but I don't want to give away any spoilers).