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Sleepers is a 1996 American legal crime drama film written, produced, and directed by Barry Levinson, and based on Lorenzo Carcaterra's 1995 book of the same name. The film stars Kevin Bacon, Jason Patric, Brad Pitt, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Minnie Driver, Vittorio Gassman, Brad Renfro, Jeffrey Donovan, Terry Kinney, Joe Perrino, Geoffrey Wigdor, Jonathan Tucker and Billy Crudup. The title is a slang term for juveniles who serve sentences longer than nine months.[5]

Sleepers
North American theatrical release poster
Directed by	Barry Levinson
Screenplay by	Barry Levinson
Based on	Sleepers by Lorenzo Carcaterra
Produced by	Barry Levinson Steve Golin
Starring	Kevin Bacon Robert De Niro Dustin Hoffman Bruno Kirby Jason Patric Brad Pitt Brad Renfro Minnie Driver Vittorio Gassman
Cinematography	Michael Ballhaus
Edited by	Stu Linder
Music by	John Williams
Production companies	PolyGram Filmed Entertainment Propaganda Films Baltimore Pictures Astoria Films
Distributed by	Warner Bros. (North America) PolyGram Filmed Entertainment[1][2] (International)
Release date	October 18, 1996 (1996-10-18)
Running time	147 minutes[2]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$44 million[3]
Box office	$165.6 million[4]

Sleepers was theatrically released in the United States on October 18, 1996 and was a box-office hit, grossing $165.6 million against a $44 million budget.

Plot

Lorenzo "Shakes" Carcaterra, Tommy Marcano, Michael Sullivan, and John Reilly are childhood friends living in Hell's Kitchen in the 1960s. Father "Bobby" Carillo, their parish priest and a youth offender himself in the past, tries to teach them right from wrong. They still play pranks and start running small errands for local gangster King Benny.

In the summer of 1967, the four boys steal a hotdog cart, which they accidentally roll down the subway stairs, severely injuring an elderly man. They are all sentenced to serve time at Wilkinson Home for Boys in Upstate New York; Shakes is given 6 to 12 months, while the others are given 12 to 18 months. During their stay, they are constantly subjected to sexual abuse and torture by head guards Sean Nokes, Henry Addison, Ralph Ferguson and Adam Styler.

While at the facility, they participate in Wilkinson's annual football game between the guards and inmates. Michael convinces black inmate Rizzo Robinson to help win the game. Humiliated, the guards move the boys to solitary confinement for weeks, where they are systematically beaten. Rizzo does not survive and his family is told that he had died of pneumonia.

In the spring of 1968, shortly before Shakes' release from Wilkinson, he suggests the boys publicly report the abuse. The others refuse, with Michael asserting that no one would believe them or care, and they vow never to speak of it again. The night before Shakes is released, Nokes and the other guards arrange a "farewell party" in which the four boys are again brutally abused.

In 1981, John and Tommy, now career criminals, unexpectedly encounter Sean Nokes in a Hell's Kitchen pub. Confronting him, he dismisses the abuse he put them through, and John and Tommy shoot him dead in front of witnesses. Michael, now an assistant district attorney, gets himself assigned to the case; he secretly intends to botch the prosecution and expose what the guards at Wilkinson's did. With Shakes, now a reporter, they form a plan to free John and Tommy and get revenge on the other Wilkinson abusers. With the help of King Benny and Carol, their childhood friend, they carry out their plan using information compiled by Michael on the backgrounds of the guards, helped by Danny Snyder, an alcoholic lawyer, to defend John and Tommy.

Michael secretly drafts scripted questions in advance, so Snyder casts significant doubt on the testimony of a woman who witnessed the murder, and two other witnesses are intimidated into silence. For Michael's plan to fully succeed, however, he must damage Nokes' reputation and convincingly place John and Tommy at another location at the time of the shooting. Ferguson, when called as a witness, admits that Nokes, like the other guards, used to abuse the boys. To clinch the case, however, a key witness was still needed for John and Tommy's alibi. Shakes has a long talk with Father Bobby, who resists at first, but after learning the truth, reluctantly agrees to perjure himself. At trial, Father Bobby testifies John and Tommy were with him at a New York Knicks game at the time of the shooting and shows three ticket stubs to prove it. As a result, John and Tommy are acquitted.

The remaining guards are also punished for their crimes: Henry Addison, now a politician who still molests children, is abducted and killed near the local airport by black gangsters led by Rizzo's older brother, Eddie "Little Caesar" Robinson, who heard the truth about Rizzo's death from King Benny; Adam Styler, now a corrupt police officer, is imprisoned for taking bribes and murdering a drug dealer; and Ralph Fergurson, a social worker, loses his job and family and is left to live alone with his guilt for the rest of his life.

Michael, Shakes, John, Tommy, and Carol meet at a local bar to celebrate. It is the last time the four are together. Shakes remains in Hell's Kitchen as a reporter; Michael quits the DA's office, moves to the English countryside, becomes a carpenter and never marries; John and Tommy both die before age 30 - John succumbs to liver cirrhosis due to excessive alcohol consumption while Tommy is ambushed and murdered by rival criminals. Carol remains in Hell's Kitchen as a social worker; she has a son, naming him John Thomas Michael Martinez, with the nickname "Shakes".

Cast

Production

The first words spoken in the film are: "This is a true story about friendship that runs deeper than blood".[7][8] However, the truthfulness and factual accuracy of the film—and the book upon which it is based—were challenged by the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church and School in Manhattan (the school attended by Lorenzo Carcaterra) and by the Manhattan District Attorney's office, among others.[8][7] Carcaterra has acknowledged that most details in the book were fictionalized, but maintained that the events described in the book actually occurred.[8][9]

Release

Box office

In its opening weekend the film grossed $12,305,745 in 1,915 theaters in the United States and Canada, debuting atop of the box office. Sleepers grossed $53,315,285 domestically and $112,300,000 internationally for a worldwide total of $165,615,285.[4]

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an overall approval rating of 73% based on 56 reviews, with an average rating of 6.60/10. The consensus summarizes: "Old friendships are awakened by the need for revenge, making Sleepers a haunting nightmare burdened by voiceover yet terrifically captured by Barry Levinson."[10] Review aggregator Metacritic gives it a weighted average score of 49 out of 100 based on 18 critics,[11] indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Critics praised the performances of De Niro, Hoffman, Bacon, and the young cast,[12] as well as the cinematography and production design.[12][7] However, multiple critics said the film loses focus in its second half.[13][14][15] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly wrote, “Sleepers wants to do something impossible — merge the mournful, drenched-in-shame emotions of child abuse with the huckster gamesmanship of a contraption like The Sting.”[16]

David Ansen of Newsweek criticized Levinson’s script and reasoned the adult characters of Shakes, Michael, John, and Tommy were not fully fleshed out.[15] Roger Ebert awarded the film three out of four stars, but said it did not engage enough in the moral issues it purported to be about.[7] Steve Davis of The Austin Chronicle wrote, “What a more interesting film this would have been had Levinson found a way to integrate the past and the present so that one informed the other.”[17]

When the film was released there was major controversy over how much of the novel had been invented by its author.[18]

Accolades

Award	Category	Nominee(s)	Result	Ref.
Academy Awards	Best Original Dramatic Score	John Williams	Nominated	[19]
London Film Critics Circle Awards	British Supporting Actress of the Year	Minnie Driver[lower-alpha 1]	Won	[20]
Young Artist Awards	Best Performance in a Feature Film – Leading Young Actor	Joe Perrino	Nominated	[21]
	Best Performance in a Feature Film – Supporting Young Actor	Geoffrey Wigdor	Nominated
YoungStar Awards	Best Performance by a Young Actor in a Drama Film	Joe Perrino	Nominated	[22]
		Brad Renfro	Nominated

Home media

The film was released on VHS by Warner Home Video in 1997. The film was released in DVD on November 3, 2009 and also in Blu-Ray on August 2, 2011.[23]

Notes

References

External links

• Sleepers at IMDb
• Sleepers at Box Office Mojo
• Sleepers at Rotten Tomatoes
• Sleepers at Metacritic

На других языках

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[de] Sleepers (Film)

Sleepers ist ein US-amerikanisches Filmdrama aus dem Jahr 1996, basierend auf dem gleichnamigen Roman von Lorenzo Carcaterra. Der Begriff Sleepers, so wird es an einer Stelle im Film selbst erklärt, steht im Gossenjargon für Personen, die in einer Jugendstrafanstalt waren.

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- [en] Sleepers

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[ru] Спящие (фильм)

«Спящие» (англ. Sleepers) — криминальная драма режиссёра Барри Левинсона, снятая в 1996 году по одноимённому роману Лоренцо Каркатерры[en].

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