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I saw this movie many years after it was screened in first-run theaters, for age reasons and I was delighted with it in a third-run theater where I went with my teenage friends and the theme left us amazed because they always present the bad guys as violent and heartless and here, they turned out to be not only intelligent but also peaceful.
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The plot revolves around the task of avenging a friend killed by a mobster, which are imposed, Johnny Kelly Hooker played by Robert Redford and Henry Shaw Gondorff, played by Paul Newman, who in previous years had worked together in the hit film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
This collection of accounts will not be done in the traditional way of murdering him but in a very unconventional way, swindling him and for that they set up an ingenious scheme, along with other friends that is undoubtedly worthy of an excellent script, in order to recover the money that Doyle Lonnegan, the mobster, who is played by Robert Shaw, stole from his friend.
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It all takes place in 1936 Chicago, in the middle of the Depression, and although it was a film with a small budget for its production, less than 6 million dollars, which is not something minimal for the time, it had an impact on the public that went to the theaters to see something different, full of novel actions that uncovered the art of swindling in a profound way, for which the collection reached 160 million dollars.
The screenplay was written by David S. Ward and Charlsie Bryant and the film was directed by George Roy Hill, who had previously been in the same role in successful films such as The World of Henry Orient.
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This film was nominated for 10 Oscars in 1973 and won 7 of them, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Editing and Best Score, losing Robert Redford the award for Best Actor to Jack Lemmon who won it for his work in Save the Tiger.
In the film, besides wit, there is humor, action, chemistry between the main characters and a good performance by a large cast including Ray Walston, who had already had a successful performance between 1963 and 1966 in the television series My Favorite Martian.
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Something curious is that the music is not original since it was composed in 1902 by Scott Joplin and adapted by Marvin Hamlisch.
The betting house where the scam takes place is fake and at the end the spectators themselves are deceived by the development and end of the play.
I highly recommend it to see it with the family and remember old times that do not go out of fashion, because the scam has changed its protagonists but maintains its essence.