The Sting (1973)

The 5.1 is a legitimate, discrete remix. The opening music is of noticeably higher fidelity than in the original mono mix, but the mono was probably mixed there to sound old-timey -- the drums are low, almost buried, but they're very prominent in the remix. The music during the title card segments hasn't been discretely remixed and sounds objectively worse than in the mono. At least one music sequence differs instrumentally: in the montage starting at 00:32:38.135 (blu-ray timecode), the snares in the 5.1 come in when Redford emerges from the changing room, 12 seconds earlier than they do in the original mix (when Redford drops the packages on the bed).

The biggest difference between the two is the utter lack of true silence in the remix. Ambient sound is always present -- the cards sequence on the train plays less tense with the 5.1 than with the original mix. In the final scene, when Robert Shaw approaches Paul Newman, all sound but their dialogue ceases, whereas the ever-present ambient sound in the 5.1 is just as loud as it always is.

Various sound effects are substituted with more modern sounding ones: gunshots (see 01:41:17.392 and 01:56:59.325 - they now sound more 'pew pew' than 'bam bam' -- silencer sounds), a cash register (01:38:54.453), and various passing cars (they now sound 'whiny', with gimmicky strong pans).

The mono sounds best on the 1998 R1 Universal DVD (open matte), where its A/V sync is also slightly better than that of the 5.1 on the blu-ray (not really noticeable unless you look for it). The mono on the Special Edition DVD sounds more rolled-off and unclear. The pre-SE R2 DVD also sounds worse than the 1998 DVD. No mono track is included on the blu-ray.