Old-Timey

There are a lot of reasons why George Roy Hill won the Best Director Oscar in 1974 for The Sting. (Two of those reasons are named "Robert Redford" and "Paul Newman" a.k.a. the two most charming men to have ever lived.)

But one of the biggest reasons is the way he sets a playful, nostalgic tone throughout the entire movie. The film suggests a more innocent time, when conmen were cool instead of creepy, faking your own death was cool instead of creepy, and Robert Redford's fugly striped suit was…cool instead of creepy.

Seriously: this movie makes you want to take a time machine back to 1930s Chicago and hang out with hardened, down-on-their-luck criminals. That's a feat.

George Roy Hill uses title cards to help convey the sense that this movie is about a bygone time. At various parts of this movie, you'll see old-fashioned drawings flash across the screen—"The Hook," "The Wire," "The Sting" (source).

The cards have the effect of dividing the movie up into chapters, but they also give the entire production an old-fashioned tone and help make us feel like we're living in the land of pool halls, conmen, and crooked cops. Add to this the amazing set and costume designs and you've got a movie that drops you right into the heart of Depression-era Chicago…and makes it look awesome.