Sleepers (film)

"Sleepers" redirects here. For other uses, see Sleeper (disambiguation).

Sleepers
Theatrical release poster
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 Vittorio Gassman Dustin Hoffman Jason Patric Brad Pitt Brad Renfro Minnie Driver
Music by	John Williams
Cinematography	Michael Ballhaus
Editing by	Stu Linder
Studio	Polygram Filmed Entertainment Propaganda Films Baltimore Pictures
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	October 18, 1996 (1996-10-18)
Running time	147 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$44 million
Box office	$165,615,285

Sleepers is a 1996 American legal drama film written, produced, and directed by Barry Levinson, and based on Lorenzo Carcaterra's 1995 novel of the same name.

Plot

Lorenzo "Shakes" Carcaterra, Thomas "Tommy" Marcano, Michael Sullivan, and John Reilly are childhood friends in Hell's Kitchen, New York City in the mid-1960s. The local priest, Father Bobby Carillo (De Niro), plays an 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.

In the summer of 1967, their lives take a turn when they nearly kill a man after pulling a prank on a hot dog vendor. As punishment, the older three are sentenced to serve 12 to 18 months at the Wilkinson Home for Boys in Upstate New York while Lorenzo is sentenced to 6 to 12 months. There, the boys are systematically abused and raped by guards Sean Nokes, Henry Addison, Ralph Ferguson, and Adam Styler.

Fourteen years later, John and Tommy kill Nokes in a Hell's Kitchen pub in front of witnesses. Michael, now an assistant district attorney, arranges to be assigned to the case, secretly intending to botch the prosecution. He and Shakes (Patric), a newspaper reporter, forge a plan to get revenge on all the guards who abused them. With the help of friends, including Carol, a social worker, and King Benny, they carry out their revenge using information on the Wilkinson guards compiled by Michael. They hire Danny Snyder, a washed-up lawyer, to defend John and Tommy to make it seem as if the case is hopeless.

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, who agrees to lie on the stand by saying John and Tommy were with him at a New York Knicks game on the night of the shooting. As a result, they are acquitted, and Ferguson exposes himself and Nokes as abusers when called as a witness in court. The remaining guards are punished for their crimes: Addison is killed by a drug gang; and Styler, a corrupt policeman accused of extorting and killing a drug dealer, is exposed and arrested. After the case is over, Michael quits his job and moves to the English countryside where he becomes a carpenter. Tommy and John both die before their 30th birthdays.

Cast

• Joe Perrino as young Lorenzo "Shakes" Carcaterra
  • Jason Patric as adult Lorenzo
• Brad Pitt as adult Michael Sullivan
  • Brad Renfro as young Michael
• Billy Crudup as adult Thomas "Tommy" Marcano
  • Jonathan Tucker as young Tommy
• Ron Eldard as adult John Reilly
  • Geoffrey Wigdor as young John
• Minnie Driver as adult Carol
  • Monica Polito as young Carol
• Robert De Niro as Father Bobby Carillo
• Kevin Bacon as Sean Nokes
• Jeffrey Donovan as Henry Addison
• Lennie Loftin as Adam Styler
• Terry Kinney as Ralph Ferguson
• Vittorio Gassman as King Benny
• Dustin Hoffman as Danny Snyder
• John Slattery as Ron Carlson
• Daniel Mastrogiorgio as Nick Davenport
• Wendell Pierce as Little Caesar

Reception

The film received mixed to positive reviews and Rotten Tomatoes gave it a score of 73% and Metacritic giving it a weighted score of 49.

External links

• Sleepers at the Internet Movie Database
• Sleepers at Box Office Mojo
• Sleepers at Rotten Tomatoes
• Sleepers at Metacritic
• Synopsis at director Barry Levinson's website