When I saw “Courage Under Fire” for the first time a few months back, I was convinced that it would be a nearly unchallenged winner of both the Best Picture and Best Director Academy Awards. Obviously I hadn’t yet seen “Sleepers.”
Based on a book by Lorenzo Carcaterra, which was based on real events, “Sleepers” tells a powerful, convincing story that is truly unforgettable.
Director/writer Barry Levinson does an excellent job with the subject at hand. As with most serious novels, they are much too long and detailed to fit into a ninety minute film, so Levinson didn’t hold himself to that. “Sleepers” runs two and a half hours, but is interesting for every minute of it.
He isn’t given a simple topic to direct, either. “Sleepers” covers a wide variety of subjects: everything from friendship and honor to murder and sexual abuse.
The movie opens in the mid-sixties when we meet four best friends living in Hell’s Kitchen, New York. As we watch them try to top each others’ pranks, it seems only inevitable that sooner or later one of them is going to backfire.
And then one does. The boys are scamming a hot dog vendor when after losing control of the cart, someone is badly injured. The boys are then sentenced to a year to eighteen months at the Wilkinson home for boys, a juvenile detention center.
It doesn’t take long before we find out about the awful crimes committed there. The first thing that one of the boys is asked to do is to strip naked in front of one of the guards, only for him to smile and tell him to get dressed again.
Before long, the guards, ringled by Sean Nokes (Kevin Bacon), start regularly beating and sexually abusing the boys. After winning a guards-inmates football game, the main characters are beaten and given solitary confinement without food or light, and another inmate is beaten to death.
Then, thirteen years later, two of the boys, now leaders of a Hell’s Kitchen gang, see Nokes in a bar, and kill him.
The last hour of the movie portrays their trial. It is no normal trial, however, since the prosecuting attorney is one of their old friends, and not only purposely tanks the case, but writes nothing less than a script for a defense lawyer.
As could be expected examining the names involved, the acting is spectacular. Robert DeNiro as Father Bobby, a parental figure to the foursome, gets the best writing of the film, and knows exactly what to do with it. He should be a major contender for an Oscar this year.
Brad Pitt, continuing to deviate from standard sex symbol roles, is also fantastic as Michael, the prosecuting attorney. He is given the always difficult job of acting the role of someone who is sometimes acting, in this case acting like someone who wants to win a case he doesn’t.
The scripted defense lawyer is Dustin Hoffman, who is simply too good for this small a role. His character is an alcoholic with a drug problem who, many years ago, was a top notch attorney. We quickly learn that this description doesn’t apply (last year’s case record: 0-4) but he is forced into reading the lines Michael writes for him.
The list seems to go on and on, but I must not neglect mention of the young and old versions of Shakes, Joe Perrino and Jason Patric. Patric serves as the narrator, but Perrino does most of the work.
Shakes is the focal point of the abuse at the Wilkinson home, and Perrino skills far beyond his years. Patric is excellent as well, but to give his adult character the attention it deserves, “Sleepers” would’ve lasted another half hour.
The truth of the story has recently come into question, but that shouldn’t affect a decision whether or not to see this movie. It might even be reassuring if it wasn’t true; parts of this movie are terrifying enough as fiction.
For those of you interested in Oscar Watch ‘96, this is a must-see. It is difficult for me to believe that “Sleepers” will not get several nomination, impossible that it won’t get any. And the movie is still fun to watch.
Grade: A