Reviews (119)

An great comedy thriller classic.
When an ambitious Small Time Crook (Two Time Oscar-Winner:Robert Redford) steals $10,000 with his old age partner from an dangerous criminal (Robert Shaw), later on that day, The Crook discover his crime partner has been murder by the crime lord. Then The Crook meets his dead friend ex-partner a Veteran Con-Man (Three Time Oscar-Winner:Paul Newman), who seek revenge on the crime lord.

Entertaining comedy is directed by George Roy Hill (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Slap Shot) and Written by David S. Ward (The Program). Winner of Seven Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Score and Best Original Screenplay. The Film recieve Three Oscar Nominations, Including:Best Actor:-Robert Redford, Best Cinematography and Best Sound. The Sting has the Greatest Double Crossing in a Movie History, Complete with an Surprise Ending. Great Fun. Better to Wait for the Special Edition DVD in a Widescreen Version, which it will be 30 Years, Next Year. Grade:A.

The Quintessential Caper Flick
"The Sting" is an extremely well written story by David Ward ("Major League", "Sleepless in Seattle") and David Maurer about some smalltime grifters who attempt to swindle a mob boss. The film was nominated for ten Academy Awards in 1974 and won seven Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director. It reunited director George Roy Hill, Robert Redford and Paul Newman four years after their blockbuster, "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". Strangely, although Butch and Sundance made it to number 50 on AFI's top 100 of the century, this film did not make that list. This is even more surprising since "Butch" did not win the Oscar for Best Picture in 1970 ("Midnight Cowboy" won it that year).

While I think "Butch" is funnier and more exciting, this film is more intriguing with interesting character studies and some unpredictable plot twists. Hill does a superb job of weaving the elements of the caper together and giving it a depression era feeling. The humor is more ironic than hilarious, but it fits the story well. The period props, locations, and sets are excellent, and the costumes are perfect. The costumes were done by the legendary Edith Head, who designed costumes for over 400 films in her 50-year career. She won an Oscar for best Costume Design for this film, which was one of eight she won in that category in a career marked by an astounding 34 Oscar nominations. The music by Scott Joplin and Marvin Hamlisch is also fabulous, bestowing an early twentieth century flavor on the film, and giving Hamlisch one of three Oscars he won that year (the other two were for "The Way We Were" also starring Redford).

Where "Butch" was probably a little more Newman's film, this film clearly belonged to Redford. Redford, who was nominated for best actor for the role, is marvelous in the lead, giving his character a charming, lighthearted personality to go along with his scheming intellect. Newman plays almost a supporting role as the veteran conman Henry Gondorff, who assembles the team for the caper and oversees its execution. Despite the smaller part, Newman gives an electrifying performance with his conniving tough guy portrayal. Robert Shaw ("From Russia With Love", "A Man For All Seasons", "Jaws") is also terrific as mob boss Doyle Lonnegan. Charles Durning ("The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas"), Ray Walston (TV's "My Favorite Martian") and Eileen Brennan ("Private Benjamin") round out a splendid supporting cast with fantastic character portrayals.

This film is entertaining and fun with a tight plot and wonderful period renderings. I rated it a 10/10. If you have never seen it, you are in for a treat.

THIS ONE REALLY STINGS!
"The Sting" is a classic throwback to Hollywood's golden age: a fish out of water tale about a couple of con artists (Paul Newman and Robert Redford) who seemingly meet their match in a cheating mobster (Robert Shaw). As the police close in from one end and the Mafia from the other, the stakes become higher, the comedy more hilarious and the ultimate con, more rewarding. The supporting cast is a potpourri of stellar characters including Dana Elcar, Eileen Brennan, Ray Walston, Charles Durning, and Harold Gould. Marvin Hamlisch provides a sophisticated score buttressed by Scott Joplin's ragtime jazz.

It is disheartening to see an Oscar wining Best Picture get so shabby a treatment on DVD. For starters, the film is presented in a full frame, pan and scan version only. The shortcomings of this format are that you are not seeing the film in a version director, George Roy Hill would have approved of. But apart from Universal's glaringly obvious oversight, the print quality of "The Sting" suffers from a poorly balanced color spectrum, age related artifacts, edge enhancement, shimmering of fine details and pixelization. Flesh tones are often weak and pasty. Blacks are rarely solid or deep. Fine grain can be excessive in spots. The audio is poorly mixed, sounding strident and tinny. There are no extra features.

Redford and Newman at it again
I just rented this DVD and watched the whole thing, but I've seen this movie several times before.

Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) is a con artist who unknowingly swindles a lackey of crime boss Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw). After Hooker's partner in the crime is killed, Hooker vows revenge against Lonnegan and seeks Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman), one of the best cons in the game to help in the big Sting. Hooker would love to do more than just hit Lonnegan for a lot of money, but "doesn't know enough about killin' to kill him."

It's not easy separating a crime boss from his money, especially when he owns half the politicians and police. They have to take him without him even knowing he was taken. What follows is an exciting deception, carried out with professionalism and ingenuity.

I don't think the chemistry between Newman and Redford is quite as good as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but it's still pretty darn good. Lines like this:

Redford (first seeing his arch-enemy): "He's not as tough as he thinks."
Newman: "Neither are we"

The story is classic. You don't exactly know who's who, and you wonder how they're going to pull it off in the end. Scott Joplin's ragtime music, although somewhat anachronistic, is effective at keeping the movie somewhat lighthearted. There are a couple of instances of swearing and a stripper with pasties on, which gives it a PG rating.

The reason for four stars is the fact that the DVD has NO EXTRAS, and the only option is the full screen version, no widescreen. A movie as good as this deserves better, which is unfortunate.

Overall, this is a great movie with great cinematography (transition wipe effects and some tracking shots) and phenomenal acting. Enjoy.

Widescreen?
I love the film, but why is this not available in Widescreen on DVD? There's been a Widescreen VHS, and I've seen it in Widescreen on Turner Classic Movies. I know it was shot in Widescreen, so how about it, Universal? ... Read more

Amazon.com

George Roy Hill (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) directed this 1988 comedy that gives star Chevy Chase one of his better-quality vehicles. Chase plays a New York sportswriter who turns to the country for a simpler, happier way of living. He discovers, of course, that things don't work out that way. Hill's usual touch with comic timing, tone, and dialogue give Chase a rare career opportunity to be part of something a little classier than most of his other movies; but Funny Farm nevertheless has its share of so-what gags. Still, the film's overall tone is winning and laid-back, and it makes for nice escapist fare. --Tom Keogh ... Read more

Reviews (36)

PRETTY DARN FUNNY...
This is definitely one of the better Chevy Chase vehicles, as it does not go too far off the beaten path and is handled with a lighter touch than many of his other films. It is funny, wry, and deftly humorous.

The plot is simple. A sportswriter from New York, Andy Farmer (Chevy Chase), and his wife, Elizabeth (Madolyn Smith-Osborne), decide to move to the country so that he can write his great American novel. They move to rural Redbud, Vermont, and instead of a bucolic, pastoral setting with friendly, kindly, country folk, they find snakes, a postman who maniacally drinks and drives, a sheriff who can't drive a car, a corpse in their back yard, and a whole slew of the weirder than weird.

Instead of writing the great American novel, Andy only manages to turn out some useless drivel, while Elizabeth turns out a charming children's book. This causes great friction between the two, and it looks as if their sojourn in the country, as well as their marriage, is to be a brief one. They decide to move back to New York and inveigle the entire town of Redbud to assist them in selling their house, by turning the town and its environs into a warm and cozy setting out of a Norman Rockwell painting. What happens next is quite funny.

Just about every one in the film is a little wacky, with the exception of Andy's wife, Elizabeth, who is the one sane, grounded character. Madolyn Smith-Osborne gives an excellent performance as the wife. She is a perfect comedic foil. Chevy Chase as Andy is well...Chevy Chase and, as always, funny. The supporting cast is likewise excellent and contribute to the many humorous moments in the film. All in all, this is an enjoyable comedy that is fun for the whole family.

Typical Chevy Chase Comedy Fare.
Funny Farm was an average Chevy Chase film. Very funny and goofy, with a no-rules screenplay and a stupid plot which grows onto to you, and makes you get used to it. Funny Farm isn't a National Lampoons kind of movie, this one is acceptable for kids and adults...who both should find something amusing about it. Personally, I think that if you don't rent it, then you're missing the fun, because Tv edits out too many funny parts [like the scene where he drops his wife threw the door]. Overall, Funny Farm is worth the time to watch, and is a winner for hard-core Chevy Chase fans.

Funny Farm A Great Laugh Anytime
Funny Farm is...well.. funny! I remember when it came out in the theatres it got about 2 or 3 stars. However if you like romantic comedy set in the backwoods this film will have your sides aching from laughter. The premise is rather simple. A big town guy turns to a small town in search of a better life. The only problem is that everything goes wrong. The movers cant find the house. No one will give directions. There are a pair of sign stealers that appear all throughout the movie. Of course our heroine Andy needs to see that sign that they just took (Look! No bullet holes!) There is a scene in a diner and a Sheriff that has you wondering about small town law enforcement. The whole thing ends up at Christmas with beautiful decorations and even more hilarity as our stars come back to Earth. Chevy and Madeline play off one another well in this funny movie. Just when you think things are straightening out for the couple, something else falls apart. Its another movie that is no Oscar winner but its one I watch over and over. I couldnt have a collection of movies without Funny Farm. Dont miss it.

FUNNY...AND VASTLY UNDERRATED MOVIE
This movie doesn't get a lot of love but through repeated showings on the Comedy channel I have grown to really appreciate it. Chevy Chase is a big city sports writer who decides to give up city live and move to the quaint New England town of Redbud, Vermont to write a crime novel. He's accompanied by his wife played by Madolyn Smith.

Well in classic Murphy's law, everything that can go wrong, does go wrong. They get to their new house and find that their furniture is late arriving, they have no phone, their mailman is a nut who tosses the mail out as he speeds by, and they have a body buried on their property.

Chase tries to acclimate himself to the new townfolk by filling in in a fishing contest...promptly hooking one of his partners in the neck with the fishing hook. In an attempt to remove the hook Chase punches the hapless man to try and knock him out. This prompts one of the other men to say, "you're not knocking him out, you're just beating the Sh*t out of him!"

Throughout, Chase battles the crazed mailman as well as the rest of the nutty townfolk who are like demented members of Hooterville.

Later they decide and sell their dreamhouse and offer to pay the townspeople to act normal for just one day to impress the prospective buyers. They put on a show right out of a Norman Rockwell painting as its now during the Christmas season. funny stuff.

Chase is at his finest as the put upon writer, becoming slightly more crazed himself with everyday he spends in redbud. The townspeople are tremendous.

Pick this one up

my favorite movie of all time
This is just plain good entertainment. I never get tired of it. I love the town of REDBUD. Too many classic scenes to mention. Okay I'll mention one. "gotta love the mailman". They don't make movies like this anymore that you can share with your whole family and laugh. ... Read more

Amazon.com essential video

Middle-eastern terrorism provides the dense, perpetually timely context of The Little Drummer Girl, loyally adapted from John Le Carré's complex bestseller. It's slow going at first, taking pains to establish the tragically complicated plight of Charlie (Diane Keaton), a left-wing, pro-Palestinian actress, recruited by Israeli intelligence in 1981 to play the role of a lifetime: Once her loyalties are turned, she will lure a dominant Palestinian terrorist (Sami Frey) into a deadly trap. She's an unwitting pawn, vulnerable to romance (particularly with her Israeli recruiter, played with subtle conviction by Greek-born Yorgo Voyagis), and Keaton brings sympathetic naiveté to her character's potentially lethal dilemma. Klaus Kinski is arguably miscast as the Israeli intelligence chief, but viewers are more likely to stumble over the film's constant flow of intricate detail. The Little Drummer Girl is not always easy to follow, but attentive viewers will be rewarded, and the plot itself is, sadly, as relevant as ever. --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Reviews (15)

Diane Keaton plays a spy
Diane Keaton plays "The Little Drummer Girl", a young American actress recruited into a very complex plot to help catch an international Arab terrorist. The plan involves a lot of twists, backstabing, and double crosses, so you'll forgive me if I don't go into the details. Diane Keaton dose well as the vulnerable woman who is seduced into this rather complicated mission, where she is scared because she dosn't know everything that is going on or who she can trust. Keaton is strong and believable as a Palistine sympathizer. Yorgo Voyagis and Klaus Kinski as Keaton's contact and his suprerior (resectivly) also stand out with excellent performances. I really bought the love story between Keaton and Voyagis, which is rare; usually I hate the love stories in espionage thrillers, this one felt real. It is mostly subtle, only the violence at the end is brutal and bloody, but not too badly. I keep watching movies like this one or "Black Sunday" and I get chills at how close these movies are to (then) future events. Although that's where similerities end, "Little Drummer Girl" makes former West Germany it's target of terror. I liked this movie, it had the reality that James Bond dosen't, and heart that Tom Clancy is usually lacking. Good job all around.

The Little Drummer Girl
I really love this movie, although I have to admit I didn't catch the entire plot until I turned on closed captioning on my TV. A lot of the words are just too garbled to understand. My one big complaint about the movie itself is the casting of Diane Keaton. This isn't a criticism of her looks since I think she's very attractive, however for the role she was playing they needed someone who was very pretty in order to be convincing. She does do a magnificent job of acting the part.

This movie is one the most romantic I have ever seen. Although there are only a few romantic areas in it, they are enough to carry the whole thing and make your your knees go weak. I became an instant Yorgo Voyagis fan after seeing this.

The plot is excellent and carries you through to the end. I recommend this movie very much.

great spy movie!
forget the tacky 1980's clothes that Diane Keaton wears, forget the fact that Diane Keaton was a mite too old to be playing the Mata Hari, this is a fantastic spy movie!

A more boiled down verson of the novel by the same name (this is one of the rare example where I think the movie is better than the book) is complex and gritty; a fluid example of the race/religion quagmire that is the State of Israel. Klaus Kinski is absollutely fabulous and subtle in his role as the leader of the Israeli spy team that is trying to hunt down a mysterious bomber (remarkable performance by Sami Frey as the Palestinian bomber) and Diane Keaton, though a little too mature to be playing a somewhat nieve actresss who is recruited to pose as the bomber's brother's lover, plays through her confusion of grappling with her pro-Palestinian political affilations while at the same time working for the Israelis. The supporting cast of characters are equally complex if not extremely present in the movie which adds to the feel and scope of the spy operation that ensues.

The final hour is emotionally engaging and harrowing as is Keaton's eventual nervous breakdown after the bomber is caught. The extent of the spy operation is also grand in scope without being overbearing or, likewise, confusing.
A great movie for a cloudy day when you feel in the mood for a little intrigue!

YIKES
I was surprised at how dopey this movie was -- I mean, right from the beginning. But then, it wasn't made yesterday -- it was made 20 years ago. I guess nowadays we demand a far more detailed setting for a flick involving Middle East intrigue. It felt so much like a standard issue TV episode from the early 80s that I kept expecting to see a commercial break. I swear I've seen episodes of Gilligan's Island that outperform this film in terms of suspense and plot development.

The terrorism is familiar but the plot is implausible.
This 1984 film is based on the novel by John LeCarre and deals with a subject we've all become too familiar with lately: terrorism. Diane Keaton stars as a young woman who's into causes and even though she shows Palestinian sympathies, is still recruited by the Israeli Mosad to become an operative. What follows is an entirely implausible plot that required utmost concentration to follow.

Klaus Kinski played the part of the Israeli leader and even though he is a good actor, his Nordic looks made him hard to believe as an Israeli. Yorgo Voyagis, a handsome Greek actor, played the Israeli agent who gets romantically involved with Keaton. Problem is that their relationship never really sizzled and it was hard to believe she wound up putting herself in so much danger for a cause she felt so lukewarm about or for this man with whom she had few, if any, love scenes with.

I liked Keaton in her role, cast as an actress with a rather ditzy personality. The role called for her displaying her own insecurities as well as courage. She also played it in a way to make it clear that she was attracted more to the adventure and the Israeli agent than she was to the politics.

There's good cinematography and a fine sense of place. Scenes are shot in Germany, England, Greece and the Middle East. It all looks very real. There's a moderate amount of tension, especially near the end, but the story itself lacks believability and emotional intensity.

Times have changed since the film was produced, which was groundbreaking then because it showed the moral ambiguity and savage methods used by both the Israelis and Palestinians. The computers the characters used were the latest technology then too, but I had to smile the black and white monitors and dot matrix printers. Watching the film is a trip back into the past with overtones that are all too true in the present. And it's sad to note that the conflict it deals with has grown in intensity since. ... Read more

Reviews (84)

Perhaps the funniest sports comedy of all time
This is simply a hilarious movie about a hockey team fighting for its very survival in Charlestown, West Virginia. The style of hockey portrayed in the movie is Don Cherry-style "Old Time Hockey" - Sweethearts who don't like violence in sports should check out another video.
Although Paul Newman stars, it is the no-name actors (minor league hockey players in real life) who play the Hanson brothers who steal the show.
Life eventually imitated art: A couple of years after this movie came out, the Boston Bruins went into the stands to beat up fans in New York's Madison Square Garden, and, a few years later, the Montreal Canadians and Philadelphia Flyers had a huge brawl before the game even started - just like in this movie.

One of the funniest films ever!
Like USED CARS, this movie is bawdy, rude, over the top, politically incorrect, profane, gratuitous, and loving every minute of it! Newman plays the captain of a bush-league hockey team that's going down the tubes. For most of the players, it's either hockey or an assembly-line job, so Newman decides to bring in the fans with violence. He succeeds, thanks to some brilliant manipulation and a trio of hockey-playing idiot savants (mostly idiot) named the Hanson Brothers. This is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. The first scene where the Hanson's get off the bench (heck, EVERY scene with the Hansons) is a classic and will make you laugh until you need surgery! The DVD isn't much better than the VHS, unfortunately, as far as picture quality or features go. There are some alternate language tracks (if you're a big fan of Newman in French), but no director's commentary, etc. SEE THIS MOVIE! Every performance is hilarious and perfectly-cast. George Roy Hill (who also directed Newman in the classics BUTCH CASSIDY and THE STING) seems to just bring out Newman's best no matter what the genre. Also Strother Martin (of COOL HAND LUKE, "failure to communicate") fame, is in this and is totally hilarious!

HAT TRICK.
Many were amazed that SLAP SHOT was written by a woman when it was released in 1977. More amazing was that Nancy Dowd's original screenplay was robbed of an Oscar nomination in 1977. Dowd got the feel of the game and the players as perfect as the paint on the blue lines (her brother Ned Dowd plays the infamous Oggie Ogelthorpe in a nano-second cameo that has reverbs throughout the film). George Roy Hill works his A-list players, Newman, Strother Martin and the now heralded Hanson Brothers, into sports (not just sports films) legends. SLAP SHOT is a winner.

Baldwin needs to be a little more observant!
Um, did you perhaps fail to notice that this is an R rated movie? That usually means that there is a fair amount of coarse language, expletives, violence, nudity, etc. Just what made you think that this was a movie for children? Anyway, it's a great movie and being a *huge* Paul Newman fan, I really enjoyed seeing him in this very amusing comedy role.

Baldwin you are clueless
As a hockey player and hockey coach I can tell you one thing, you are not a hockey dad. This movie is definately one of the most hilarious sports movies ever. Don't even bother with any other hockey movie, except maybe Youngblood, because those other movies, especially Mighty Ducks (puke) is not hockey, flying V my behind (did we forget about offsides?).
The Hanson brothers were everyone's heroes. While we all wished to be Gretzky or Orr, we all wanted to be the Hansons. They are some of the best caricatures of hockey players in the 1970s. Hockey was a brutal, lawless game that while some had skating skills, most had fighting skills. It was fun growing up in the 70's and early 80's playing hockey as a kid. While playing high school and college was not quite like this movie, go see a junior game or a USHL game and this is what you'll see, albeit a bit more toned down.
Mighty Ducks - please. Give me Reg Dunlop, Killer Carlson and the Hansons - which being from Minnesota gives me pleasure seeing some hometown skaters. Enjoy the movie, enjoy the hits and the humor. ... Read more

Amazon.com essential video

This 1969 film has never lost its popularity or its unusual appeal as a star-driven Western that tinkers with the genre's conventions and comes up with something both terrifically entertaining and--typical of its period--a tad paranoid. Paul Newman plays the legendary outlaw Butch Cassidy as an eternal optimist and self-styled visionary, conjuring dreams of banks just ripe for the picking all over the world. Robert Redford is his more levelheaded partner, the sharpshooting Sundance Kid. The film, written by William Goldman (The Princess Bride) and directed by George Roy Hill (The Sting), basically begins as a freewheeling story about robbing trains but soon becomes a chase as a relentless posse--always seen at a great distance like some remote authority--forces Butch and Sundance into the hills and, finally, Bolivia. Weakened a little by feel-good inclinations (a scene involving bicycle tricks and the song "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" is sort of Hollywood flower power), the movie maintains an interesting tautness, and the chemistry between Redford and Newman is rare. (A factoid: Newman first offered the Sundance part to Jack Lemmon.) --Tom Keogh ... Read more

Reviews (93)

"You Just Keep Thinking, Butch...!"
This film truly deserves the description of being a "Classic." Paul Newman and Robert Redford (in the company of Director George Roy Hill and a particularly appealing Katharine Ross), take the history of the bloodthirsty "Hole-in-the-Wall Gang," and turn it into an affectionate cinematic portrayal of male bonding and cultural change.

Taking place at the end of the 19th century, Butch and Sundance are, as veteran actor Jeff Corey, playing a sympathetic sheriff and accidental existentialist, snarls, "two-bit outlaws on the dodge!" They spend much of the movie dodging a posse hired to hunt them down and kill them in the wake of a series of amusing train robberies. The location shooting of their escape is breathtakingly beautiful.

Ultimately, they have to flee the closing frontier, and end up in Bolivia, which is portrayed as a kind of low-rent version of the Old West. Their trip to South America is an intermezzo, done in sepia tint, focusing on their stay in New York, which, with its (relatively) modern conveniences, underscores how anachronistic their lifestyle has become.

Their inability to rob banks in Bolivia without using Spanish-language crib sheets is both hilarious and touching, a kind of paradigm of cultural and technological dislocation.

In keeping with its 1969 release date, the film has a strong antiestablishment cant to it: Authority is faceless, unyielding, and, mostly, inept. It is telling that Butch and Sundance kill no one until they "go straight" as payroll guards. Their criminal lifestyle is romanticized as a kind of "On The Road" on horseback. That this doesn't offend the audience is a measure of how fine this movie is. The warmth and humor overcome both the moral relativity of the characters and their sad ending.

Newman and Redford are wonderful together as the affable outlaws. Newman's Butch is a charming, flaky visionary who is trying desperately to cling to the past. When confronted with the new alarms and teller's cages at a favorite bank, he dismisses the guard's explanation of, "People kept robbing us" with a wistful, "It's a small price to pay for beauty."

As Butch says: "The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles!" In a sense: the Western Outlaw was succeeded by "Public Enemy Number One" when cars succeeded horses, and train and bank robberies became Federal crimes. "Your times is over!," Jeff Corey insists, and he's right.

Redford plays Sundance as the stylish straight man, never quite falling prey to Butch's dreams, but never able to dismiss them utterly: "You just keep thinking, Butch, that's what you're best at!" The onscreen chemistry between Newman and Redford is so palpable that although they only made two films together ("The Sting" in 1973 is a modernized version of "Butch & Sundance"), they can easily be considered one of the finest comedy duos ever, anywhere. The dialogue between them is banter between two very good, very old, very comfortable, friends. Maybe there was a script involved, too.

"Butch and Sundance" may be short on facts, but it speaks a kind of truth for which facts are not needed.

Newman & Redford's First Film Together
Paul Newman and Robert Redford are two of the biggest movie stars of all time. They are also the best of friends and that friendship shines through on their first film together, Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid. The film is set in the old west, but it has a definite 60's feel to it. Butch and Sundance are anti-heroes who defy the "establishment" by robbing trains. Finally the train company gets fed up and sends an elite team of bounty hunters to track them down. This inspires the film's classic catchphrase, "who are those guys" as Butch & Sundance can't shake their pursuers. The film has a light comical side to it as Mr. Newman is at his charming best as Butch and Mr. Redford elicits laughs as the uptight Sundance. Katherine Ross provides a pretty diversion as Sundance's beautiful schoolteacher girlfriend, Etta Place. Mr. Newman & Mr. Redford are instantly likable in the lead roles and you can feel their real affinity for one another come through in the film. The movie was a major box office hit and won and William Goldman won an Oscar for his crisp and witty script and But Bacarach and Hal David won an Oscar for the film's theme song "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" which B.J. Thomas took to number one in late 1969.

Style and Substance
I remember seeing this movie at the cinema as a kid (many years ago)and being knocked out by how COOL Redford and Sundance were. You know the scene in Blues Brothers, the doorway of the transient mens refuge and the rocket launcher, and they just get up, brush themsleves off, music resumes and go on as if nothing happened. That cool. And so when they get to the stage of being concerned "who ARE those guys" we have substance for the actions they take afterwards. Now watching this movie on DVD with my kids, they didn't get enraptured as I did at their age. As you might guess, not enough action for their generation - and yet, when there is action, it plays with as much emotion as the best of hollywood today. A tremendous cast delivering a tremendous performance, this will always be one of my favorite movies.

Sticks pretty well to historical fact
For one when Butch and sundance are being chased up the mountain by the posse Butch mentions Joe LaFors (sp?). I checked a while ago. LaFors really existed as a lawman at the time. But Etta Place (Kathryn Ross)though she really existed was actually not a school teacher. More likely she was a prostitute.

Butch & the Kid
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is one of the best movies (if not the best!!!) I have ever seen. The action, the interplay and the chemistry between the 2 leading stars (Newman, Redford) is like "poetry in motion". The action is non-stop, as well as the comedy, especially of Newman. Even though there is quite a bit of violence throughout the movie, I would recommend that everyone buy the video!!! ... Read more

Amazon.com essential video

Winner of seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, Director, and Screenplay, this critical and box-office hit from 1973 provided a perfect reunion for director George Roy Hill and stars Paul Newman and Robert Redford, who previously delighted audiences with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Set in 1936, the movie's about a pair of Chicago con artists (Newman and Redford) who find themselves in a high-stakes game against the master of all cheating mobsters (Robert Shaw) when they set out to avenge the murder of a mutual friend and partner. Using a bogus bookie joint as a front for their con of all cons, the two feel the heat from the Chicago Mob on one side and encroaching police on the other. But in a plot that contains more twists than a treacherous mountain road, the ultimate scam is pulled off with consummate style and panache. It's an added bonus that Newman and Redford were box-office kings at the top of their game, and while Shaw broods intensely as the Runyonesque villain, The Sting is further blessed by a host of great supporting players including Dana Elcar, Eileen Brennan, Ray Walston, Charles Durning, and Harold Gould. Thanks to the flavorful music score by Marvin Hamlisch, this was also the movie that sparked a nationwide revival of Scott Joplin's ragtime jazz, which is featured prominently on the soundtrack. One of the most entertaining movies of the early 1970s, The Sting is a welcome throwback to Hollywood's golden age of the '30s that hasn't lost any of its popular charm. --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Reviews (119)

An great comedy thriller classic.
When an ambitious Small Time Crook (Two Time Oscar-Winner:Robert Redford) steals $10,000 with his old age partner from an dangerous criminal (Robert Shaw), later on that day, The Crook discover his crime partner has been murder by the crime lord. Then The Crook meets his dead friend ex-partner a Veteran Con-Man (Three Time Oscar-Winner:Paul Newman), who seek revenge on the crime lord.

Entertaining comedy is directed by George Roy Hill (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Slap Shot) and Written by David S. Ward (The Program). Winner of Seven Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Score and Best Original Screenplay. The Film recieve Three Oscar Nominations, Including:Best Actor:-Robert Redford, Best Cinematography and Best Sound. The Sting has the Greatest Double Crossing in a Movie History, Complete with an Surprise Ending. Great Fun. Better to Wait for the Special Edition DVD in a Widescreen Version, which it will be 30 Years, Next Year. Grade:A.

The Quintessential Caper Flick
"The Sting" is an extremely well written story by David Ward ("Major League", "Sleepless in Seattle") and David Maurer about some smalltime grifters who attempt to swindle a mob boss. The film was nominated for ten Academy Awards in 1974 and won seven Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director. It reunited director George Roy Hill, Robert Redford and Paul Newman four years after their blockbuster, "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". Strangely, although Butch and Sundance made it to number 50 on AFI's top 100 of the century, this film did not make that list. This is even more surprising since "Butch" did not win the Oscar for Best Picture in 1970 ("Midnight Cowboy" won it that year).

While I think "Butch" is funnier and more exciting, this film is more intriguing with interesting character studies and some unpredictable plot twists. Hill does a superb job of weaving the elements of the caper together and giving it a depression era feeling. The humor is more ironic than hilarious, but it fits the story well. The period props, locations, and sets are excellent, and the costumes are perfect. The costumes were done by the legendary Edith Head, who designed costumes for over 400 films in her 50-year career. She won an Oscar for best Costume Design for this film, which was one of eight she won in that category in a career marked by an astounding 34 Oscar nominations. The music by Scott Joplin and Marvin Hamlisch is also fabulous, bestowing an early twentieth century flavor on the film, and giving Hamlisch one of three Oscars he won that year (the other two were for "The Way We Were" also starring Redford).

Where "Butch" was probably a little more Newman's film, this film clearly belonged to Redford. Redford, who was nominated for best actor for the role, is marvelous in the lead, giving his character a charming, lighthearted personality to go along with his scheming intellect. Newman plays almost a supporting role as the veteran conman Henry Gondorff, who assembles the team for the caper and oversees its execution. Despite the smaller part, Newman gives an electrifying performance with his conniving tough guy portrayal. Robert Shaw ("From Russia With Love", "A Man For All Seasons", "Jaws") is also terrific as mob boss Doyle Lonnegan. Charles Durning ("The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas"), Ray Walston (TV's "My Favorite Martian") and Eileen Brennan ("Private Benjamin") round out a splendid supporting cast with fantastic character portrayals.

This film is entertaining and fun with a tight plot and wonderful period renderings. I rated it a 10/10. If you have never seen it, you are in for a treat.

THIS ONE REALLY STINGS!
"The Sting" is a classic throwback to Hollywood's golden age: a fish out of water tale about a couple of con artists (Paul Newman and Robert Redford) who seemingly meet their match in a cheating mobster (Robert Shaw). As the police close in from one end and the Mafia from the other, the stakes become higher, the comedy more hilarious and the ultimate con, more rewarding. The supporting cast is a potpourri of stellar characters including Dana Elcar, Eileen Brennan, Ray Walston, Charles Durning, and Harold Gould. Marvin Hamlisch provides a sophisticated score buttressed by Scott Joplin's ragtime jazz.

It is disheartening to see an Oscar wining Best Picture get so shabby a treatment on DVD. For starters, the film is presented in a full frame, pan and scan version only. The shortcomings of this format are that you are not seeing the film in a version director, George Roy Hill would have approved of. But apart from Universal's glaringly obvious oversight, the print quality of "The Sting" suffers from a poorly balanced color spectrum, age related artifacts, edge enhancement, shimmering of fine details and pixelization. Flesh tones are often weak and pasty. Blacks are rarely solid or deep. Fine grain can be excessive in spots. The audio is poorly mixed, sounding strident and tinny. There are no extra features.

Redford and Newman at it again
I just rented this DVD and watched the whole thing, but I've seen this movie several times before.

Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) is a con artist who unknowingly swindles a lackey of crime boss Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw). After Hooker's partner in the crime is killed, Hooker vows revenge against Lonnegan and seeks Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman), one of the best cons in the game to help in the big Sting. Hooker would love to do more than just hit Lonnegan for a lot of money, but "doesn't know enough about killin' to kill him."

It's not easy separating a crime boss from his money, especially when he owns half the politicians and police. They have to take him without him even knowing he was taken. What follows is an exciting deception, carried out with professionalism and ingenuity.

I don't think the chemistry between Newman and Redford is quite as good as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but it's still pretty darn good. Lines like this:

Redford (first seeing his arch-enemy): "He's not as tough as he thinks."
Newman: "Neither are we"

The story is classic. You don't exactly know who's who, and you wonder how they're going to pull it off in the end. Scott Joplin's ragtime music, although somewhat anachronistic, is effective at keeping the movie somewhat lighthearted. There are a couple of instances of swearing and a stripper with pasties on, which gives it a PG rating.

The reason for four stars is the fact that the DVD has NO EXTRAS, and the only option is the full screen version, no widescreen. A movie as good as this deserves better, which is unfortunate.

Overall, this is a great movie with great cinematography (transition wipe effects and some tracking shots) and phenomenal acting. Enjoy.

Widescreen?
I love the film, but why is this not available in Widescreen on DVD? There's been a Widescreen VHS, and I've seen it in Widescreen on Turner Classic Movies. I know it was shot in Widescreen, so how about it, Universal? ... Read more

Amazon.com

George Roy Hill (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) directed this adaptation of James Michener's novel about the history of the 50th state. Max von Sydow plays a zealous missionary with a Calvinist bent, intent on enlightening the natives even as his wife (Julie Andrews) is romanced by the dashing Richard Harris. The film is both a glossy vision of Hawaii in the early 19th century and a sometimes-brutal drama full of death, a rough childbirth, stormy weather, etc. Hill's blunt editing, meant to emphasize the more terrifying aspects of the natural order of life, makes the film look particularly dated and mannered today. This is best appreciated for its cast, all of whom were making inroads in Hollywood at the time. --Tom Keogh ... Read more

Reviews (9)

An American Tale
George Roy Hill's "Hawaii" (actually,like "Gone With The Wind", it was completed by several directors)is a splendid example of Hollywood epic narrative at its best.That it is so much less well known than the rather soggy "Dr.Zhivago", done the previous year, is incomprehensible, except perhaps as a testament to the truth of P.T. Barnum's famous comment about American popular taste. This comparison is particularly apt, because "Hawaii" has a great deal more to say about American verve and energy -- both its laudable desire to improve the world, and its darker tendency to dominate it -- than the David Lean film has to tell us about the Russian Revolution.Max von Sydow is nothing short of transcendent as Reverend Abner Hale, who has to rank as the least likable or approachable hero ever to inhabit the center of an American epic film. (Scarlett O'Hara, with her husband-stealing and attempted fornication, was a piker next to a man who denies spiritual comfort to a sailor who just saved a ship from wrecking,and who prays for the death of a new-born baby because it was "conceived in sin".)Sydow accomplishes something almost impossible, something that Nathaniel Hawthorne,that great poet of the Puritan tradition, would have understood perfectly: showing how a narrow, humorless man, motivated by pure righteousness,can do great harm AND great good at the same time. The fervor that leads Hale to cruelly demand the end of the incestuous -- and utterly loving -- marriage of Malama and Keoki Kanakoa is the SAME force that leads him to teach the Hawaiian people to read, to save unwanted babies from being put to death,and to protect the rights of the Hawaiian people to their lands.(How the devil did the Academy miss this performance when selecting the Best Actor nominees for 1966?)I might add that this is a lesson in the complexity of cultural imperialism which is especially needed right now, when the U.S. is preparing to remake the world in its image by force with an intensity that might have given even those New England mission folk pause.
The rest of the cast is equally superb.Julie Andrews, as Hale's wife Jerusha, manages to convey the strength of a woman who finds the loving qualities in a man who seems to lack them with a sweet sincerity that has no whiff of feminism-avant-la-lettre about it. Jocelyne La Garde as the Alii Nui (Queen)of Maui, Malama, is so lovable that you FEEL her eventual death as you would that of a dear friend.Even the smaller parts, such as Torin Thatcher as the mission director and Gene Hackman as the courageous, humanistic missionary John Whipple, are memorable.
This film also has some really lovely images and line readings in it.The sight of Mrs.Hale's worn face as she looks wordlessly down the country road after her son as he leaves for Hawaii, knowing that she will never see him again,is like an Andrew Wyeth painting.The transition of looks on Sydow's face at the end, when he meets the adult man whom Jerusha saved from death as a baby -- calling her to come out of the house, and then gradually remembering, through his mental fog, that the beloved wife he is calling has been dead for years -- is like a miniature recapitulation of the entire story we have just seen.But my favorite moment is the one where the mission representative asks Hale how he can bear to stay on as an old man in Lahaina "without friends".Sydow looks at him, with the ageless wisdom of an Old Testament prophet,and says: "In this place I have known God, and Jerusha Bromley,and Ruth Malama Kanakoa; and beyond that a man has no need of friends." Anyone who can stay dry-eyed through that line is made of sterner stuff than I.
A treasure of a film , not to be missed.

Michener come alive
I own the VHS widescreen version of Hawaii. This is the uncut version with I think about 180 minutes. The film truly brings to life the characters in the first part of Michener's novels. Self-righteous missionary Abner Hale (Max von Sydow) is like I pictured him when I read the book. Julie Andrews also does a good job as wife Jerusha.

I am a native of Hawai'i, and I can suspend disbelief when looking at these fictional missionaries. Abner may be stereotyped, but he does come out as multi-dimensional and able to change over time. This helps to make him believable.

The second part of the novel was made into The Hawaiians, starring Charlton Heston, Geraldine Chaplin, Tina Chen and Mako. This film is more believable in some ways. Chen and Mako depict the Chinese immigrant couple in an authentic way. This film is often shown on TV, but it has NEVER been on commercial VHS, not to mention DVD.

I am waiting for DVD editions of both Hawaii and The Hawaiians: in a nice boxed set if possible. And I think the novel has enough material for one or two or three more films. But that is not as much a priority as trying to get DVDs of the ones already made.

THE RIGHT AND WRONG WAYS TO EVANGELIZE CHRIST!
"Hawaii" is a sprawling and episodic retelling of the mammoth book by James Michener. It is the story of the early Congregationalist missionaries to the Hawaiian islands. It is a story of fundamentalist intolerance, greed, abuse of power, yet is also a story of love, mercy and forgiveness. The beginning of the film is a bit uneven, but once the ship reaches the islands, all's well with the movie. Jocelyn LaGarde as the Malama, the Hawaiian matriarch is the cast standout. She is natural, funny and heartbreaking. I would count this film as one of the great religious movies of all time, since it deals with true dilemmas of faith: how religious faith can foster intolerance and contempt of others, and how missionaries must first accept their people as people, and not see them as potential converts. The last scene with the student and Max Von Sydow is a tear-jerker, and a great example of God's providential nature at work. The score by Elmer Bernstein is memorable as well.

One of the Finest Films Ever
I was totally amazed by this film. I had only briefly heard it mentioned before I bought my copy. The scenery is breathtaking, and the acting superb. Although it was nominated for many Academy Awards, it sadly did not receive any. It is a striking tribute to the history of the Hawaiian people. Very, very educational for teenagers or adults.

GREAT, GREATER IF COMPLETED...........
THIS IS A VERY GOOD ATTEMPT AT JAMES MICHENER'S NOVEL. THE CAST
SELECTION WAS WONDERFUL. THE ONLY PROBLEM WITH THE MOVIE IS THAT
IT WAS NOT COMPLETE. TO COMPLETE THE NOVEL AS IT SHOULD BE WOULD
PROBABLY INVOLVE A MINI-SERIES OR AT LEAST ANOTHER TWO TAPE MOVIE. THE MOVIE GOES BY THE BOOK BETTER AND MORE CLOSELY THAN
I THOUGHT IT WOULD. SOME SECTIONS ARE LEFT OUT, BUT THAT IS
UNDERSTANDABLE, MAKING THE MOVIE JUST LONG ENOUGH TO KEEP ONE'S
ATTENTION. I WISH SOMEONE WOULD TAKE UP WHERE THIS MOVIE LEFT OFF AND FINISH THE ENTIRE NOVEL. I FEEL IT IS OWED TO MICHNER.
IT IS MOST CERTAINLY A MOVIE TO BUY ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE READ THE BOOK. IT IS A SHAME IT WAS NOT DONE LIKE CENTENNIAL..... ... Read more

Amazon.com essential video

Billy Pilgrim (Michael Sacks) has a problem with time: he keeps jumping about in his own life, principally between three key scenes. The "present" is a kind of glowing suburban bliss involving a dutiful wife, large house, and presidency of the local Lions; the "past" is being a prisoner of World War II and experiencing the firebombing of Dresden from the wrong side; the "future" takes place in a glass dome on the planet Tralfamadore, to which Billy has been mysteriously spirited along with the woman of his fantasies (Montana Wildhack, played by Valerie Perrine). It isn't meant to make too much sense, since the point is to represent a man (and a century) that has witnessed things too unbearable for a wholly sane person to make sense of. In fact author Kurt Vonnegut's anguished cry on the insanity of war is one of those completely unfilmable books, so director George Roy Hill gets points even for trying. The whole package is thought provoking in a wholly Vonnegutian way. All this, and Glenn Gould playing Bach as well. --Richard Farr ... Read more

Reviews (36)

SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE
I watch A LOT of movies and even review movies online as a hobby. This film is my very favorite movie of all time (and after 46 years of living, that says a lot). Vonnegut to me, uses Billy Pilgrim as a virginal character (although in the film he does produce two children with his wife). He is like an innocent who goes through world war II and tries to avoid doing harm. As a result of a misunderstanding while a prisoner of war, he makes a lifelong enemy. We see Pilgrim's life process..his ups and downs, and his otherworldly adventures and in this movie, we are shown a new way of experiencing life...as the Tralfamadorians say..the secret to living in a crazy world is to concentrate on the good times and ignore the bad. If I only had one movie to watch on a desert island..it would be this one. Two thumbs and five stars all the way!

"Could we have the 'night canopy', please?"
George Roy Hill's vastly underrated and often misunderstood 1972 sci-fi classic is available on DVD at last (or once again...I have never personally seen an available copy of the purported first DVD release-it must have gone out of print rather quickly). Hill does an admirable job with Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s "unfilmable" story about Billy Pilgrim, a quiet and somewhat milquetoast Everyman (Michael Sachs) who has become "unstuck in time"; living/reliving random moments of his life in a kind of eternal "shuffle play". Without giving too much away, I'll just tell you that UFO's, WW 2, a sexy B-movie queen (played by Valerie Perrine-oh my!), suburban Americana, Zen philosophy, time travel, the End Of The Universe and intergalactic zoos all enter the mix, and believe it or not, it all makes perfect sense. In the hands of a lesser director, this type of risky book-to-film could have been a real mess (a la the most recent Vonnegut-to-screen "Breakfast Of Champions"). Hill manages to pull it off with the same class and finesse he would later apply to the equally 'unfilmable' John Irving story "The World According To Garp" (F.Y.I.-Hill's resume also includes "Butch Cassidy", "The Sting", "Slapshot" and "A Little Romance"!). The 2004 DVD transfer features a crisp widescreen picture and passable mono audio (no "extras", but I would suggest reading the book as an "extra"!) A must-have for fans of cerebral sci-fi.

our mind
I think this movie depicts how our minds go back and forth to our memories. As you can see Billy Pligrima unstuck on time and he lives now but at the same time he lives with past, present, and perhaps the future as well. It well written and made out as a movie. It is a post modern approach to the viewers of up coming generation. It is a great movie but you might read the book first and watch the film.

Misses A Point of the Novel
In my opinion, one of the most heart-breaking aspects of the novel upon which this film was based was the possibility that Billy Pilgrim had to fantasize the Trafalmadorians to hide from the fact the people are RESPONSIBLE for their own actions. I thought the film presented the Trafalmadorians as real, without looking into the possibility that people might be responsible for the horrors they create. I think the best film adaptation of a Vonnegut novel is "MOTHER NIGHT."

Billy...The war is over !!!
My all time favorite movie , read the book in 1973 and then saw the film on a late nite broadcast in the late 70's...When I got my first Video recorder this was one of the first films I bought....I have been looking to buy this on DVD for a long time and now I have it...The movie is well written and filmed , the music is outstanding and the acting is top notch...The German scenes of camps and halftracks and uniforms are right on the money...The story is a killer , time travel and insanity and fatherhood and anti-war themes run rampant....Dresden and the Feb. 1945 bombing are the central theme though and the storyline of this event is the thread that holds the movie together...Buy this movie and enjoy it many times....You need to view it at least a dozen times to catch all the plots and the dialouge and the great direction that was put into this story... ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Something Else
I got to see this movie on Cable on Saturday evening by taping it, and yes, it was a good performance by Dean Martin. He was believeable. But Geraldine Page always took the cake and more. That lady knew she had her roles down pat. On one hand, I wanted to shake that young Yvette Mimeaux,and tell her to go and get some self esteem and a back bone. Always going behind her husband's back and believing any little thing folk told her. All in all, a good movie.

Great film but I still don't get the title
In one of his best performances, Dean Martin stars as Julian, a likeable, kindhearted neer-do-well who has hit the big time for the first time in his life. Geraldine Page, Wendy Hiller, and Yvette Mimieux are superb as the trio of women who are the most important people in his life. Page plays Carrie, Julian's sister whose deceptively fluttery and loving facade masks a selfish and manipulative woman. Hiller is his other sister, Anna, who seems the opposite by coming across as cool and aloof, but is the selfless one who loves Julian unconditionally. Mimiux plays Lily, Julian's insecure and emotionally fragile young wife. Julian's big time comes when he buys "worthless" swampland which turns out to be valuable and makes a small fortune by selling it to Cyrus Warkins, the most wealthy and powerful man in town. Unbeknownst to Cyrus, his abused wife Charlotte had given Julian--her ex-lover but now strictly friends--the inside dope so Julian splits half the proceeds with her to escape her nasty husband. Unfortunately, the arrangement goes entirely awry due to Carrie's devious machinations and skillful manipulation of the insecure Lily as a pawn in her ingenious scheme to have Julian dependent and all to herself the way he was before his new wealth--resulting in devastating consequences. This is an overlooked classic with powerhouse performances and a complex, multi-issue story subtly dealing with interracial relations and relationships, prejuduce, domestic violence, class distinction, and incest.

Toys in the Attic film
Though I didn't see the play or read the screenplay of L. Hellman's "Toys in the Attic," I have just seen the video and was entranced by the performances of Geraldine Page, Dean Martin, and Wendy Hiller!! What a movie!! Ms. Page never disappointed her audience, and 21 years later gave her Oscar-winning performance in "The Trip to Bountiful." I didn't realize how wonderfully Dean Martin could handle a dramatic role...Wendy Hiller stoicly is the older, common-sense sister who survives all the dysfunction in the siblings..what a movie!! Ms. Mimeaux is quite good as well. In my retirement, I'm trying to see the movies I missed when our children were small...this one is a "keeper."

PAGE AND HILLER ARE BRILLIANT...AS USUAL!!!
I LOVE THIS FILM! OF COURSE, I ADMIT, I'M PARTIAL TO 60'S FILMS ESPECIALLY GOOD OLD BLACK AND WHITE DRAMAS BUT PLEASE TAKE MY WORD ON THIS ONE...IF YOU ARE A GERALDINE PAGE FAN YOU CAN'T MISS THIS MOVIE!!! I'VE SAID IT BEFORE AND I'LL SAY IT AGAIN, THIS WOMAN WAS ONE OF THE GREATEST ACTRESSES EVER TO GRACE A MOVIE CAMERA...SHE DOES MORE IN 10 SECONDS OF SCREEN TIME THAN MOST ACTRESSES DO IN MOVIE AFTER MOVIE...TAKE NOTE: MISS ROBERTS, MISS RYAN, MISS JOLIE, ETC.! DEAN MARTIN IS ALSO EXCELLENT AND THE DIVINE WENDY HILLER IS SIMPLY STUNNING AS USUAL!

One of Dean's Finest!
This gripping melodrama based on Lillian Helman's stage play surely is an underated cinematic masterpiece and certainly in the tradition of "Streetcar Named Desire', "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", and "Requim for a Heavyweight". The stark black and white adds to this family psycho drama of two sisters and their "returning" brother. Of course, things aren't as they seem in this homecoming and the twists and turns will hold you spellbound. In addition, this is certainly one of Dean Martin's best dramatic performances and one of his better if not widely accclaimed films. A stunning tale, it 's one of those classics that should be seen by more people than it has been. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

Great Waldo Pepper - a must see
This movie is a winner. For History buffs, it will take you down "memory lane" or show you how it was during the great

barnstorming era. Robert Redford is the Great Waldo Pepper, a World War I "flying ace," who never saw combat because of his value as an instructor, thus he missed the actual fighting. He yearns for the chance to use his skills in combat against Germany's ace, von Kessler. Coincidently, Kessler is in America and it so happens he flys action scenes for a movie company, based on his life as a fighter pilot. Pepper befriends Kessler on the movie set and both face each other in "actual combat." The finale is not only thrilling, but touching.
Buy it, see it, enjoy it.

A Classic Reford Film!
I Don't often give movies a five star rating but this one really deserved it. Robert Redford did an excellent job as a World War I flying ace being forced to adapt to a civilian life style after the war and at the same time watch the world, as he knew it, slip away.

This happens to many of us as we grow older and the world around begins to change. Like Reford in The Great Waldo Pepper you try and grasp onto what your most familiar with. The world and it's changes leave you behind. What do you do? In this well made, well filmed and well acted movie you will find out about the life and dreams of one man placed where there is no return.

The Great Waldo Pepper Has some of the most beautiful flying scenes that you will see anywhere. It turns back the pages of time and gives you a little glimpse of what flying was all about in its infancy. My suggestion: Buy it.

I Know What It's Like
Growing up this was significant to me, because I had already seen Jeremiah Johnson and other countless Redford films. Also recently, I moved to Elgin, Texas, just 2 miles from where Redford's airplane was filmed flying through the center of a historical small town! The pictures and newspaper articles are in the town's railroad depot museum. The town hasn't changed much since then and is very historical to this day.

The word "great" also describes the movie
This movie has special significance for me because I first saw it as a teenager. Yet it holds up as a great movie for me 28 years after it was made (unlike some others I could name).

I like Robert Redford in almost anything, and he's at his best here as a barnstorming pilot in the 1920s who pretends to have seen more action in World War One than he did. He made me feel for the character when he said, "It should have been me" after rival flyer Axel Olsen exposed him as a "four-flusher" for claiming he was a key figure in a famous battle.

Pepper finally gets his chance to go up against the German World War One ace Ernst Kessler (perhaps loosely based on the real German ace Ernst Udet) as a stunt pilot in a movie crew.

The dialogue scenes between Pepper and Kessler leading up to the climactic dogfight are the best part of the movie, even though Kessler's lines seemed to be written more in the interest of serving the plot than in serving the character.

The idea that Kessler was a man who only felt at home in the air, for whom nothing worked out well on the ground, resonated with me, as it did with Pepper, who felt the same way.

In closing, I'd like to mention the beginning of the movie when Waldo Pepper lands at a small town in Iowa to offer airplane rides. He promises a free ride at the end of the day to a boy named Scooter if he will tote a 5-gallon gas can back and forth from the filling station to keep Pepper's plane fueled.

The song that plays over the opening credits during this sequence has stuck with me for 28 years. I heard it again in 1992 while attending a boot camp graduation ceremony at the Great Lakes Naval Recruit Training Command and remembered it from the movie. I don't know the name of it, but I love that song.

Anyway, at the end of the day Scooter asks for his free ride and Pepper says he only promised that to get him to haul gas. He never takes kids for rides. Whether the character is kidding or not isn't clear, but it certainly seems that Scooter (and his dog) get the best ride of the day.

That sequence establishes Pepper as a decent, if somewhat slippery character and gets the movie off to a good start.

The Great Waldo Pepper
This is a moving tale of a daredevil hero ace from aviation's early days who can't accept changes in the field during the post-War period. Beyond that, Redford's Waldo Pepper is a tragic hero of mythic proportions, determined to fly too close to the sun. The bi-plane sequences are breathtaking, and George Roy Hill's direction is what you'd expect from the maker of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "The Sting." Unfortunately, Goodtimes Video's policy is to release films "enhanced to fit your TV screen" and the power of this film's visual majesty is severely diminished. It's another case of a distributor who just doesn't get it. (Memo to Goodtimes Video: America has big screen TVs now.) ... Read more

Reviews (9)

An American Tale
George Roy Hill's "Hawaii" (actually,like "Gone With The Wind", it was completed by several directors)is a splendid example of Hollywood epic narrative at its best.That it is so much less well known than the rather soggy "Dr.Zhivago", done the previous year, is incomprehensible, except perhaps as a testament to the truth of P.T. Barnum's famous comment about American popular taste. This comparison is particularly apt, because "Hawaii" has a great deal more to say about American verve and energy -- both its laudable desire to improve the world, and its darker tendency to dominate it -- than the David Lean film has to tell us about the Russian Revolution.Max von Sydow is nothing short of transcendent as Reverend Abner Hale, who has to rank as the least likable or approachable hero ever to inhabit the center of an American epic film. (Scarlett O'Hara, with her husband-stealing and attempted fornication, was a piker next to a man who denies spiritual comfort to a sailor who just saved a ship from wrecking,and who prays for the death of a new-born baby because it was "conceived in sin".)Sydow accomplishes something almost impossible, something that Nathaniel Hawthorne,that great poet of the Puritan tradition, would have understood perfectly: showing how a narrow, humorless man, motivated by pure righteousness,can do great harm AND great good at the same time. The fervor that leads Hale to cruelly demand the end of the incestuous -- and utterly loving -- marriage of Malama and Keoki Kanakoa is the SAME force that leads him to teach the Hawaiian people to read, to save unwanted babies from being put to death,and to protect the rights of the Hawaiian people to their lands.(How the devil did the Academy miss this performance when selecting the Best Actor nominees for 1966?)I might add that this is a lesson in the complexity of cultural imperialism which is especially needed right now, when the U.S. is preparing to remake the world in its image by force with an intensity that might have given even those New England mission folk pause.
The rest of the cast is equally superb.Julie Andrews, as Hale's wife Jerusha, manages to convey the strength of a woman who finds the loving qualities in a man who seems to lack them with a sweet sincerity that has no whiff of feminism-avant-la-lettre about it. Jocelyne La Garde as the Alii Nui (Queen)of Maui, Malama, is so lovable that you FEEL her eventual death as you would that of a dear friend.Even the smaller parts, such as Torin Thatcher as the mission director and Gene Hackman as the courageous, humanistic missionary John Whipple, are memorable.
This film also has some really lovely images and line readings in it.The sight of Mrs.Hale's worn face as she looks wordlessly down the country road after her son as he leaves for Hawaii, knowing that she will never see him again,is like an Andrew Wyeth painting.The transition of looks on Sydow's face at the end, when he meets the adult man whom Jerusha saved from death as a baby -- calling her to come out of the house, and then gradually remembering, through his mental fog, that the beloved wife he is calling has been dead for years -- is like a miniature recapitulation of the entire story we have just seen.But my favorite moment is the one where the mission representative asks Hale how he can bear to stay on as an old man in Lahaina "without friends".Sydow looks at him, with the ageless wisdom of an Old Testament prophet,and says: "In this place I have known God, and Jerusha Bromley,and Ruth Malama Kanakoa; and beyond that a man has no need of friends." Anyone who can stay dry-eyed through that line is made of sterner stuff than I.
A treasure of a film , not to be missed.

Michener come alive
I own the VHS widescreen version of Hawaii. This is the uncut version with I think about 180 minutes. The film truly brings to life the characters in the first part of Michener's novels. Self-righteous missionary Abner Hale (Max von Sydow) is like I pictured him when I read the book. Julie Andrews also does a good job as wife Jerusha.

I am a native of Hawai'i, and I can suspend disbelief when looking at these fictional missionaries. Abner may be stereotyped, but he does come out as multi-dimensional and able to change over time. This helps to make him believable.

The second part of the novel was made into The Hawaiians, starring Charlton Heston, Geraldine Chaplin, Tina Chen and Mako. This film is more believable in some ways. Chen and Mako depict the Chinese immigrant couple in an authentic way. This film is often shown on TV, but it has NEVER been on commercial VHS, not to mention DVD.

I am waiting for DVD editions of both Hawaii and The Hawaiians: in a nice boxed set if possible. And I think the novel has enough material for one or two or three more films. But that is not as much a priority as trying to get DVDs of the ones already made.

THE RIGHT AND WRONG WAYS TO EVANGELIZE CHRIST!
"Hawaii" is a sprawling and episodic retelling of the mammoth book by James Michener. It is the story of the early Congregationalist missionaries to the Hawaiian islands. It is a story of fundamentalist intolerance, greed, abuse of power, yet is also a story of love, mercy and forgiveness. The beginning of the film is a bit uneven, but once the ship reaches the islands, all's well with the movie. Jocelyn LaGarde as the Malama, the Hawaiian matriarch is the cast standout. She is natural, funny and heartbreaking. I would count this film as one of the great religious movies of all time, since it deals with true dilemmas of faith: how religious faith can foster intolerance and contempt of others, and how missionaries must first accept their people as people, and not see them as potential converts. The last scene with the student and Max Von Sydow is a tear-jerker, and a great example of God's providential nature at work. The score by Elmer Bernstein is memorable as well.

One of the Finest Films Ever
I was totally amazed by this film. I had only briefly heard it mentioned before I bought my copy. The scenery is breathtaking, and the acting superb. Although it was nominated for many Academy Awards, it sadly did not receive any. It is a striking tribute to the history of the Hawaiian people. Very, very educational for teenagers or adults.

GREAT, GREATER IF COMPLETED...........
THIS IS A VERY GOOD ATTEMPT AT JAMES MICHENER'S NOVEL. THE CAST
SELECTION WAS WONDERFUL. THE ONLY PROBLEM WITH THE MOVIE IS THAT
IT WAS NOT COMPLETE. TO COMPLETE THE NOVEL AS IT SHOULD BE WOULD
PROBABLY INVOLVE A MINI-SERIES OR AT LEAST ANOTHER TWO TAPE MOVIE. THE MOVIE GOES BY THE BOOK BETTER AND MORE CLOSELY THAN
I THOUGHT IT WOULD. SOME SECTIONS ARE LEFT OUT, BUT THAT IS
UNDERSTANDABLE, MAKING THE MOVIE JUST LONG ENOUGH TO KEEP ONE'S
ATTENTION. I WISH SOMEONE WOULD TAKE UP WHERE THIS MOVIE LEFT OFF AND FINISH THE ENTIRE NOVEL. I FEEL IT IS OWED TO MICHNER.
IT IS MOST CERTAINLY A MOVIE TO BUY ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE READ THE BOOK. IT IS A SHAME IT WAS NOT DONE LIKE CENTENNIAL..... ... Read more

Amazon.com essential video

Paul Newman and his Butch Cassidy director, George Roy Hill, made a very original comedy in this 1977 story of an over-the-hill player/coach (Newman) for a lousy hockey team who gets results when he teaches his players to get dirty. One of the most hilariously profane movies ever to come out of Hollywood, this is the kind of film that makes its own rules as it goes along. Newman is very good, and while Hill goes for the gusto in terms of capturing the violence of this world, his instinct for comedy has never been sharper. Great support from Strother Martin, Paul Dooley, and the rest. --Tom Keogh ... Read more

Reviews (84)

Perhaps the funniest sports comedy of all time
This is simply a hilarious movie about a hockey team fighting for its very survival in Charlestown, West Virginia. The style of hockey portrayed in the movie is Don Cherry-style "Old Time Hockey" - Sweethearts who don't like violence in sports should check out another video.
Although Paul Newman stars, it is the no-name actors (minor league hockey players in real life) who play the Hanson brothers who steal the show.
Life eventually imitated art: A couple of years after this movie came out, the Boston Bruins went into the stands to beat up fans in New York's Madison Square Garden, and, a few years later, the Montreal Canadians and Philadelphia Flyers had a huge brawl before the game even started - just like in this movie.

One of the funniest films ever!
Like USED CARS, this movie is bawdy, rude, over the top, politically incorrect, profane, gratuitous, and loving every minute of it! Newman plays the captain of a bush-league hockey team that's going down the tubes. For most of the players, it's either hockey or an assembly-line job, so Newman decides to bring in the fans with violence. He succeeds, thanks to some brilliant manipulation and a trio of hockey-playing idiot savants (mostly idiot) named the Hanson Brothers. This is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. The first scene where the Hanson's get off the bench (heck, EVERY scene with the Hansons) is a classic and will make you laugh until you need surgery! The DVD isn't much better than the VHS, unfortunately, as far as picture quality or features go. There are some alternate language tracks (if you're a big fan of Newman in French), but no director's commentary, etc. SEE THIS MOVIE! Every performance is hilarious and perfectly-cast. George Roy Hill (who also directed Newman in the classics BUTCH CASSIDY and THE STING) seems to just bring out Newman's best no matter what the genre. Also Strother Martin (of COOL HAND LUKE, "failure to communicate") fame, is in this and is totally hilarious!

HAT TRICK.
Many were amazed that SLAP SHOT was written by a woman when it was released in 1977. More amazing was that Nancy Dowd's original screenplay was robbed of an Oscar nomination in 1977. Dowd got the feel of the game and the players as perfect as the paint on the blue lines (her brother Ned Dowd plays the infamous Oggie Ogelthorpe in a nano-second cameo that has reverbs throughout the film). George Roy Hill works his A-list players, Newman, Strother Martin and the now heralded Hanson Brothers, into sports (not just sports films) legends. SLAP SHOT is a winner.

Baldwin needs to be a little more observant!
Um, did you perhaps fail to notice that this is an R rated movie? That usually means that there is a fair amount of coarse language, expletives, violence, nudity, etc. Just what made you think that this was a movie for children? Anyway, it's a great movie and being a *huge* Paul Newman fan, I really enjoyed seeing him in this very amusing comedy role.

Baldwin you are clueless
As a hockey player and hockey coach I can tell you one thing, you are not a hockey dad. This movie is definately one of the most hilarious sports movies ever. Don't even bother with any other hockey movie, except maybe Youngblood, because those other movies, especially Mighty Ducks (puke) is not hockey, flying V my behind (did we forget about offsides?).
The Hanson brothers were everyone's heroes. While we all wished to be Gretzky or Orr, we all wanted to be the Hansons. They are some of the best caricatures of hockey players in the 1970s. Hockey was a brutal, lawless game that while some had skating skills, most had fighting skills. It was fun growing up in the 70's and early 80's playing hockey as a kid. While playing high school and college was not quite like this movie, go see a junior game or a USHL game and this is what you'll see, albeit a bit more toned down.
Mighty Ducks - please. Give me Reg Dunlop, Killer Carlson and the Hansons - which being from Minnesota gives me pleasure seeing some hometown skaters. Enjoy the movie, enjoy the hits and the humor. ... Read more

Reviews (1)