[The Sting] is intended to form the basis for "pure entertainment," but Hill, Redford and Newman's idea of a fun picture is to skirt any form of moral, intellectual or human dilemma, focusing our attention instead on the mechanics of their scheme and the good-natured but unexplained camaraderie infusing their relationship. In that light, Hill's preoccupation with production values winds up serving as a smoke screen for his own lack of viewpoint. (p. 56)

It's hard to understand why Hill concentrates on the mechanics of the con to the exclusion of other considerations when he so obviously lacks the one skill essential for that kind of directing: the ability to break an action down into its component parts. When con gang member Ray Walston … masterminds a phony betting operation, we're never convinced that [Robert] Shaw, despite his vanity, could so easily be deceived.

But then Hill intuitively understood that...