Sleepers (1996)

Director:

Barry Levinson

Writers (WGA):

Lorenzo Carcaterra (book)
Barry Levinson (screenplay)

Release Date:

18 October 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

When friendship runs deeper than blood

Plot:

After a prank goes disastrously wrong, a group of boys are sent to a detention center where they are brutalized; over 10 years later, they get their chance for revenge.

Plot Keywords:

Melancholy | Ticket Stub | Four Best Friends | Flashback | Humiliation

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win & 4 nominations

Cast

Kevin Bacon	...	Sean Nokes
Billy Crudup	...	Tommy Marcano
Robert De Niro	...	Father Bobby
Vittorio Gassman	...	King Benny
Minnie Driver	...	Carol Martinez
Dustin Hoffman	...	Danny Snyder
Ron Eldard	...	John Reilly
Joseph Perrino	...	Young Lorenzo 'Shakes' Carcaterra (as Joe Perrino)
Jason Patric	...	Lorenzo 'Shakes' Carcaterra
Geoffrey Wigdor	...	Young John Reilly
Brad Pitt	...	Michael Sullivan
Terry Kinney	...	Ralph Ferguson
Brad Renfro	...	Young Michael Sullivan
Bruno Kirby	...	Shakes' Father
Frank Medrano	...	Fat Mancho

MPAA:

Rated R for language, graphic violence and two scenes of strong sexual content.

Runtime:

147 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Black and White | Colour

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Philippines:PG-13 | Iceland:16 | Singapore:M18 | Australia:MA | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Germany:16 (bw) | Italy:T | Netherlands:16 | Norway:15 | Portugal:M/16 | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 (original rating) | UK:18 (video rating) (1997) | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Cafe Elysian - 1001 Washington Street, Hoboken, New Jersey, USA

Company:

Baltimore Pictures

Trivia:

Director Trademark: ['Barry Levinson']Ralph Tabakin (Warden) has appeared in every Levinson picture from Diner (1982) to Liberty Heights (1999).

Goofs:

When the young lads are looking into the Ice Capades' dressing room, the windows are covered by a wire mesh, but looking back at the peeping eye from the inside there is no mesh.

Quotes:

Danny Snyder: I can't do this now. You gotta know that. It's been a long time for me. I mean -ah- you need somebody younger, ya know, somebody like I used to be.
King Benny: younger is not better. Doesn't have experience, doesn't know his way around the courthouse.
Danny Snyder: Hey, I'm lucky I can find the courthouse. I had only four cases last year-you know how many I won? None, that's how many, none. In two of them, uh, I, a, I think the jury blamed me personnally.
King Benny: They must have been innocent. It is tough to get an innocent man off a rap.
Danny Snyder: I wasn't even planning on going to court with this one. I was just gonna plea it down the best I could and walk away. I wasn't, I wasn't planning on taking this to trial.
King Benny: Well your plans have been changed.
Danny Snyder: Well I'm afraid I'll make a mistake and... say the wrong thing and, ya know, uh, uh, make a wrong turn somewhere. You don't want to take that risk.
King Benny: Life is a risk.
Danny Snyder: I'm sorry?
King Benny: Life is risk.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Bill Pullman/New Edition (#22.3)" (1996)

Soundtrack:

Witchi Tai To

Interesting but uneven

The first hour of Sleepers is highly impressive, with the account of the protagonists' fall into the hands of their oppressors and the subsequent atrocities dealt with very well. The images of what happens to the boys are sensational but realistic, avoiding, except at one key point, the kind of triumphal uprising-against-the-system plot line that normally takes over. Here there are no heroes and no courage - just blunt brutality.

Unfortunately, the second half of the film, in which convoluted courtroom-revenge theatrics take over, is unable to deliver such a punch. The only interesting character from the prison meets his end far too early, and we are left, apparently, to cheer on the demise of characters whom we have only seen in half-glimpsed slow-motion fragments. We know nothing of them, and don't care about their plight, other than in a general 'they're bad so they must die' Hollywood kind of way.

We are also asked to support a priest who lies under oath to protect two boys who, by their own admission, have murdered a man in the middle of a bar. That several witnesses saw the murders happen in front of them is ignored by the end of the film - all logic having been cast to the four winds to support a system of values which, while intuitively just, is, on reflection, highly tenuous.

An interesting film, then, but one which needed less Hollywoodisation and a little more thoughtfulness.