What a classic, haven't seen this film in years, picture and sound are greatly improved

Decades before the Marvel Cinematic Universe went overboard with its two dozen linked films (and counting!), Hollywood had fallen in love with the concept of serialised cinema. ‘James Bond’, ‘Godfather’, ‘Jaws’, ‘Back to the Future’, ‘Star Wars’, ‘Indiana Jones’... they just keep coming. Occasionally, however, someone does it right. 1969’s ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’ was both a critical and a commercial success, but the plot left little scope for a sequel. (You really have to watch it to understand why.) But the door was still open to a collaboration between director George Roy Hill and the two stars, Paul Newman and Robert Redford. The result, in 1973, was ‘The Sting’, a crime caper of the sort that was about to be swept away by the glorification of brutality in ‘The Godfather’ (and the films that followed in its wake). If it seemed old-fashioned even in 1973 that was partly a deliberate decision. Set in the Depression-era Chicago of the 1930s, some of the stylistic decisions paid homage to the films of that age without being slavish. If the beginning of the film appears slightly fuzzy, that was as considered a choice as using Scott Joplin’s music — and, of course, everything slips into crystal-clear focus with all the rich colours we expect of 4K UHD. This is a film that is worth watching more than once, and Zavvi is the place to buy it, but I leave you with a caveat: Do not spoil it for yourself by reading the plot on the ‘net!