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Sleepers
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Sleepers (1996)

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User Rating: 7.2/10 (38,092 votes)
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Overview

Director:
Barry Levinson
Writers (WGA):
Lorenzo Carcaterra (book)
Barry Levinson (screenplay)
Release Date:
18 October 1996 (USA) more view trailer
Genre:
Crime | Drama | Thriller more
Tagline:
When friendship runs deeper than blood more
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. full summary | add synopsis
Awards:
Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win & 4 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(2 articles)
Actor Brad Renfro Dies at 25 (From WENN. 15 January 2008)
De Niro's New Religious Role (From WENN. 4 April 2003)
User Comments:
Interesting but uneven more

Cast

 (Cast overview, first billed only)
Create a character page for: ?

Additional Details

MPAA:
Rated R for language, graphic violence and two scenes of strong sexual content.
Runtime:
147 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
SDDS | DTS | Dolby Digital
MOVIEmeter: ?
^ 8% since last week why?

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Director Trademark: ['Barry Levinson']Ralph Tabakin (Warden) has appeared in every Levinson picture from Diner (1982) to Liberty Heights (1999). more
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. more
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.
[...]
more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Bill Pullman/New Edition (#22.3)" (1996) more
Soundtrack:
Witchi Tai To more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful:-
Interesting but uneven, 29 July 2000
6/10
Author: Martin Pollard from Caerphilly, Wales

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.

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Message Boards

Discuss this title with other users on IMDb message board for Sleepers (1996)
Recent Posts (updated daily)User
I remember having nightmares about this film Chicken-Fat
Underrated!!! mc_xtreme_2002
Prayer scene *Spoilers!!* kklatrina
the song when Ron Eldard is staring in mirror???? pap0618
would you have let that happen to you? howthefuq
King Benny to Shakes: I was always sorry I couldn't do more for you... LesterFester
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