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Sleepers | Year: 1996 Classification: Drama Actors/Actresses: - Brad Pitt - Dustin Hoffman - Jason Patric - Minnie Driver - Robert De Niro - Kevin Bacon - Kavin Bacon - Barry Levinson Hardhitting Emotional Impact You will remember this movie and its message long after the final credits. The story is a piercing look at reality in the juvenille detention system. Characters are played to perfection by both the young set of actors in the first quarter of the film, and the older set including Brad Pitt and Jason Patric. As always, anything Robert De Niro does sticks with you. His portrayal of the priest with a moral and ethical choice to make in order to save these boys (long time friends from their childhood)will help you understand why this film stirred up such controversy when it was released. Whether the book is based on a true story or not isn't relevant. You must believe that the horrors these boys endured at the hands of cruel prison guards, Kevin Bacon is the convincing bad guy!] goes on each hour in facilities like this. The long term negative effects of abuse are undocumented since so much of the pain is hidden deep within the victims and too brutal to ever talk about. The frustration for me with this film came in seeing the way is ultimately turned out for the two on trial after all the work the friends did to help. See for yourself -- I won't ruin the story by giving it away. Snoozers? Any movie that has the Catholic church frothing at the mouth can't be all bad. In the case of Sleepers, the lodged complaint circles not around the brutal treatment of four boys at the center of the film, but the perjury-laced testimony of the priest (played by Robert DeNiro) who tries to protect them. The authenticity of Lorenzo Carcaterra's bestseller has continued to be a question, but the compelling nature of the story--true or not--is undeniable. The wise guy buddies grow up fast in Hell's Kitchen in the '60s. They do the altar boy thing one minute and peer at naked ice capade dancers through a broken window the next. It's like an Angel's with Dirty Faces remake without Cagney or an electric chair. The rough center of the story comes in the shadowy form of Wilkinson, a dank reform school where the spirits of the precocious teens are crushed on a relentless wheel of physical and verbal abuse. The leader of the pack is a sicko guard named Nokes (Kevin Bacon). The kids do their time and twelve years later two of them grease Nokes in a restaurant. Michael (Brad Pitt), an assistant D.A., and Lorenzo (Jason Patric), a reporter, conspire to get their buds off the hook in an eye for an eye trade-off. They cash in all their favors, throw an alcoholic lawyer played by Dustin Hoffman on the other side of the case, and wreak revenge on their past. But despite the star-studded lineup, Sleepers doesn't pack quite the emotional wallop it could have. The devastating prologue makes anything after it meager and shallow. Supporting Characters Saved the Movie Boys from hell's kitchen get in jail. Tortured and raped by guards. Grow up and seek a Monte-Christo revenge. The plot is good, if a little bit too straightforward. The most interesting character in the movie by far is Father Bobby (De Niro), a 'cool' priest who is as comfortable beating up an abusive father as preaching. There's Fat Mancho who gives out street wisdom to kids; Danny Snyder (Dustin Hoffman), the lawyer who mutters as if to himself in court. These characters keep the movie interesting. The boys themselves, however, have little individuality. And like all coming-of-age movies (American Graffiti, Stand By Me, October Sky) there has to be oldies playing, and the number of boys has to be 4. Young Carol is an underdeveloped character whom the director expects the audience to remember later on. The prison guards (Kevin Bacon, Terry Kinney) do what the plot expects them to do, and King Benny provides simple mob flick entertainment. The grown-up boys developed some characters but, ironically, even with the Monte Christo plot, one cannot help but get the sense that the boys, whose lives would have otherwise been very unextraordinary, were saved by the dramatic event. Buy Sleepers at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on Sleepers Search with the Priority Search Engine on Sleepers This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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