A haunting and emotionally intense crime drama that explores trauma, justice, and lifelong consequences
Sleepers remains a compelling and emotionally charged film, brought to new life with its latest 4K release.
In the 1960s, growing up in Hell's Kitchen meant living in a neighborhood with mobsters and dirty cops on the take. Four friends, Lorenzo "Shakes" Carcaterra (Jason Patric; The Lost Boys), Tommy Marcano (Billy Crudup; Watchmen), Michael Sullivan (Brad Pitt; F1: The Movie), and John Reilly (Ron Eldard; Super 8) grew up there and, though they were altar boys, they were anything but saints. They occasionally worked for the mobsters, and they often pulled little pranks. One of those pranks, in the sweltering heat of 1967, unfortunately went wrong and set them down a path that would alter the boys' lives forever. Supposedly based on a true story, the movie adaptation of the novel Sleepers became a critical and box office success in 1996.
In an attempt to steal lunch, Shakes, Michael, Tommy, and John managed to take a hot dog cart and jokingly teetered it on the edge of the stairs to the subway entrance. However, when they lost their grip, an innocent bystander was severely injured, and the boys were sentenced to a juvenile detention home in upstate New York. There, the prison guards, Nokes (Kevin Bacon; Mystic River) and Ferguson (Terry Kinney; Billions) assaulted and raped the boys. Years later, when Tommy and John run into Nokes in a pub, they kill him and end up on trial for his murder. Michael, now an assistant DA, gets Shakes to help him throw the case, so their friends get off, while bringing down the other guards from Wilkerson's home for boys, where the abuse took place all those years earlier.
To get a great cast assembled, one first needs to have a compelling story and a well-written script. Luckily, Carcaterra, along with co-writer/director Barry Levinson (Rain Man), brought their best to Sleepers. That, in turn, attracted some of the best in Hollywood, including Robert DeNiro (Raging Bull) who plays Father Bobby, Bacon, Patric, Pitt, Crudup, Dustin Hoffman (Rain Man) as Tommy and John's alcoholic attorney and Minnie Drive (Good Will Hunting) as the boys' childhood friend. To say that Sleepers is well-acted would be an understatement.
This latest release is presented in Dolby Vision, and the upgraded video quality is apparent. The visuals, especially at the Upstate Wilkerson's home for Boys, are full and detailed. The color saturation is deep and lush. Textures are easily seen by the naked eye, and the facial features are intricate. Even the darker scenes offer a variety of black and color hues.
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 is excellent as well. Dialogue is clean and easily heard. It sits comfortably in the center, front speaker, while ambient noise utilizes all of the surround speakers. The Academy Award-nominated score, written by the legendary John Williams, is robust and sounds wonderful on this release.
This release has two extras totaling 13 minutes. Both extras are taken from one interview done with Levinson, so I'm not sure why they didn't just include the whole interview as one long extra. The extras are The Making of Sleepers, and Sleepers: The Art of Casting. They are interesting but not long enough in my opinion.
The script, the cast, and the story make Sleepers a compelling tale that translates well into an excellent film. The movie is suspenseful, dramatic, difficult to watch at times, and beautifully acted. At the time it was released, it was original and fresh and had a fully thought-out plot. It is a great example of filmmaking at its finest, and this 4K release only enhances the original movie.
Grade: A-
