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Sleepers [1997]
from Universal Pictures UK
starring Robert De Niro, Kevin Bacon, Brad Pitt, Jason Patric, Billy Crudup
directed by Barry Levinson

Features:

• PAL

Editorial Review:

The first thing you need to know about Sleepers is that it's based on a novel by Lorenzo Carcaterra that was allegedly based on a true story. The movie repeats this bogus claim, which was attacked and determined by a wide majority to be misleading. Knowing this, Sleepers becomes problematic because it's too neat, too clean, too manipulative in terms of legal justice and dramatic impact to be truly convincing. And yet, with its stellar cast directed by Barry Levinson, it succeeds as gripping entertainment, and its tale of complex morality--despite a dubious emphasis on homophobic revenge--is sufficiently provocative. It's about four boys in New York's Hell's Kitchen district who are sent to reform school, where they must endure routine sexual assaults by the sadistic guards. Years after their release, the opportunity for revenge proves irresistible for two of the young men, who must then rely on the other pair of friends (Brad Pitt, Jason Patric), a loyal priest (Robert De Niro), and a shabby lawyer (Dustin Hoffman) to defend them in court. Despite the compelling ambiguities of the story, there's never any doubt about how we're supposed to feel, and the screenplay glosses over the story's most difficult moral dilemmas. At its best, Sleepers grabs your attention and pulls you into its intense story of friendship and the price of loyalty under extreme conditions. The movie's New York settings are vividly authentic, and Minnie Driver makes a strong impression as a long-time friend of the loyal group of guys. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0

• A film that will wreck your emotions but leave you begging to know more.
  *****POSSIBLE SPOILERS IN MY REVIEW*********
  This is in my top 5 greatest ever movies, falling only behind Goodfellas, Stand By Me and Casino.
  I watched the film first and then read the book, and I don't think it matters which way you do it because they are both outstanding masterpieces.
  This film will make you feel nauseas, it will make you frustrated, angry, upset, relieved and then leave you with a tear in your eye. I challenge you to hate a movie character from any other movie as much as... more info

• Really enjoyable film with a 5-star cast
  This film has a suprising amount of A-list actors in it and deserves more recognition I think. Robert DeNiro plays his role as Father Bobby exceptionally well and Brad Pitt and Kevin Bacon also provide good performances. Essentially great injustices are done and finally righted with sweet revenge, the interplay of all the characters as this story of revenge unfolds is at least partly what makes it such a good movie.

• Father Bobby would have made a good "hit-man." It's a shame we lost him to the other side.
  A journalist and a lawyer conspire together to get two brutal assassins acquitted of their most recent murder. What the world does not know is that their latest victim, Sean Nokes, tortured and raped these four men as boys. When Nokes was killed, these men were exacting their revenge for years of torment.
  When this movie was first released, there was a lot of controversy over whether it was a true story or not. No one really knows how much of the story is true, if any of it. I tend to step back from... more info

• Must see film, but is it true or not?
  This film is superb, it is a tale of freindship told from a group of young men through to adulthood.
  It is essentially about a huge error in judegement made as youngster's that sadly haunts all four of them for the rest of their live's (2 of them quite litterally), as all of them are sexually abused (abuse thankfully not shown, that's left to your imagination or not), whilst at a youth detention centre and the inevetible fallout from these events.
  Riveting stuff and great performances from the... more info

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