| Sleepers | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Barry Levinson |
| Produced by | Barry Levinson Steve Golin |
| Screenplay by | Barry Levinson |
| Based on | Sleepers by Lorenzo Carcaterra |
| Starring | Kevin Bacon Robert De Niro Dustin Hoffman Jason Patric Brad Pitt Brad Renfro and Minnie Driver |
| Music by | John Williams |
| Cinematography | Michael Ballhaus |
| Editing by | Stu Linder |
| Studio | Propaganda Films Baltimore Pictures |
| Distributed by | Polygram Filmed Entertainment Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | October 18, 1996 |
| Running time | 147 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $44 million |
| Box office | $165,615,285[1] |
Sleepers is a 1996 legal drama film written, produced, and directed by Barry Levinson, and based on Lorenzo Carcaterra's 1995 novel of the same name.
Contents |
Lorenzo "Shakes" Carcaterra (Joseph Perrino), Thomas "Tommy" Marcano (Jonathan Tucker), Michael Sullivan (Brad Renfro), and John Reilly (Geoffrey Wigdor) are four childhood friends who grew up in Hell's Kitchen, New York City in the mid-1960s. During this time, the local priest, Father Bobby (Robert De Niro), plays a very important part in their lives and keeps an eye on them. However, early on they start running small errands for a local gangster, King Benny (Vittorio Gassman).
On a summer day in 1967, their lives take a sharp turn when they almost kill a man after pulling a prank on a hot dog vendor. As punishment, they are all sentenced to serve time at the Wilkinson Home for Boys in upstate New York. There, the boys are systematically beaten, abused, and raped by guards Sean Nokes (Kevin Bacon), Henry Addison (Jeffrey Donovan), Adam Styler (Lennie Loftin), and Ralph Ferguson (Terry Kinney). These traumatic events change the boys and their friendship forever.
Fourteen years later, John (Ron Eldard) and Tommy (Billy Crudup), now gangsters, find Sean Nokes in a Hell's Kitchen pub. After reintroducing themselves to Nokes, they both shoot him dead in front of several witnesses. Mike (Brad Pitt), now an assistant District Attorney, arranges to be assigned to the case, secretly intending to botch the prosecution to use it as a means of getting revenge. Moreover, he and Shakes (Jason Patric) begin forging a plan to get their revenge on all the guards who abused them. Together with many of their lifelong friends, especially Carol (Minnie Driver), a social worker, and King Benny, they manage to carry out their revenge using information on all the Wilkinson guards compiled by Mike previously. They hire Danny Snyder (Dustin Hoffman), a washed-up, alcoholic lawyer, to defend John and Tommy to make it seem as if the case is hopeless, allowing them to carry out their plan without being watched.
However, to clinch the case they need a key witness who can give John and Tommy an alibi. Shakes has a long talk with Father Bobby, and tells him about the abuse they suffered at Wilkinson. After a few days of soul-searching, Father Bobby agrees to lie on the stand about where John and Tommy were on the night of the shooting; the priest swears under oath that they were with him at Madison Square Garden at a New York Knicks basketball game. As a result, they are acquitted, and another one of the guards, Ralph Ferguson, exposes himself and Nokes as abusers when called as a character witness in court. The remaining guards are also punished for their crimes: one, Henry Addison, is killed by the drug gang run by the older brother of Rizzo, a boy killed years before in the Wilkinson Home; the other, Adam Styler, a corrupt policeman accused of extorting and killing a drug dealer, is exposed and arrested. After the case is over, Mike quits his job as an attorney and moves to the English countryside where he becomes a carpenter; John drinks himself to death and Tommy is eventually murdered, both within a few years of the acquittal.
| Role | Actor | |
|---|---|---|
| Lorenzo "Shakes" Carcaterra | Joseph Perrino | Jason Patric |
| Michael Sullivan | Brad Renfro | Brad Pitt |
| Thomas "Tommy" Marcano | Jonathan Tucker | Billy Crudup |
| John Reilly | Geoffrey Wigdor | Ron Eldard |
| Carol Martinez | Monica Polito | Minnie Driver |
| Father Bobby Carillo | Robert De Niro | |
| Sean Nokes | Kevin Bacon | |
| Henry Addison | Jeffrey Donovan | |
| Adam Styler | Lennie Loftin | |
| Ralph Ferguson | Terry Kinney | |
| King Benny | Vittorio Gassman | |
| Danny Snyder | Dustin Hoffman | |
| Nick Davenport | Daniel Mastrogiorgio | |
The version of the film shown on television and DVD, although uncut, contains disclaimers before the end credits stating that the New York youth correctional authorities and the Manhattan District Attorney's office deny that the events in the film took place. A final title card states that Carcaterra stands by his story.
The film received mixed to positive reviews and Rotten Tomatoes gave it a score of 74%[2] and Metacritic giving it a weighted score of 49.[3]
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