Sleepers (1996)

Sleepers is a 1996 American legal crime drama film written, produced and directed by Barry Levinson. It is based on Lorenzo Carcaterra's 1995 book of the same name. The film stars an ensemble cast including Kevin Bacon, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Bruno Kirby, Jason Patric, Brad Pitt, Brad Renfro, Minnie Driver and Vittorio Gassman. The title is an American slang term for juvenile delinquents who serve sentences longer than nine months.

Sleepers was theatrically released on October 18, 1996 by Warner Bros. in the United States, with PolyGram Filmed Entertainment releasing in other territories. The film received positive reviews from critics and was a box-office hit, grossing $165.6 million against a $44 million budget.

Plot

In the summer of 1967, Lorenzo "Shakes" Carcaterra, Tommy Marcano, Michael Sullivan and John Reilly are childhood friends living in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan. At that time, the boys start running small errands for local gangster "King" Benny and eventually steal a hot-dog cart. They accidentally roll the cart down a set of subway stairs, severely injuring a man. Shakes considers fleeing to avoid prosecution, but Father Bobby Carillo convinces him to face his fears and admit his wrongs. The boys are all sentenced to serve time at a juvenile detention center called Wilkinson Home for Boys in Upstate New York; Shakes is given six-to-twelve months, while the others are given 12-to-18 months. During their stay, they are repeatedly subjected to sexual abuse and torture by head guards Sean Nokes, Henry Addison, Ralph Ferguson and Adam Styler.

While at the facility, the boys participate in Wilkinson's annual football game between the guards and inmates. Michael convinces fellow inmate "Rizzo" Robinson to help win the game. Humiliated, the guards move the boys to solitary confinement for weeks. While there, they are systematically beaten. Rizzo, who is beaten more brutally than the other boys because he is African American, does not survive. His family is told that he died of pneumonia.

In the spring of 1968, shortly before being released from Wilkinson, Shakes suggests that the boys publicly report the abuse to which they have been subjected. The others refuse, with Michael asserting that no one would believe them or care. They vow to never speak of the abuse again. The night before Shakes is released, Nokes and the other guards arrange a "farewell party" at which all four boys are brutally raped.

In the fall of 1981, John and Tommy--now grown up as career criminals working with the Irish Mob--unexpectedly encounter Nokes in a Hell's Kitchen pub. When John and Tommy confront him, he dismisses his past abusive behavior toward them. John and Tommy fatally shoot Nokes in the presence of restaurant witnesses. Michael, now an assistant district attorney, arranges himself to be assigned to the case; he secretly intends to botch the prosecution and use it as an opportunity to expose the abuses committed by the guards at Wilkinson's. With Shakes, now a timetable clerk for The New York Times, Michael plans to have John and Tommy acquitted as revenge on the other Wilkinson abusers. With the help of King Benny and Carol Martinez, the boys' childhood friend, they carry out their plan using information compiled by Michael on the backgrounds of the guards. They are helped by Danny Snyder, an alcoholic defense lawyer who represents John and Tommy.

Michael secretly drafts scripted questions for Snyder in advance. As a result, Snyder casts significant doubt on the testimony of Mrs. Salinas, a woman who witnessed the murder. Two other witnesses are intimidated into silence. For his plan to fully succeed, however, Michael decides that he must damage Nokes' reputation and convincingly place John and Tommy at another location at the time of the shooting. When called as a witness, Ferguson (now a social worker) admits that Nokes and the other guards systematically abused the boys. Shakes has a long talk with Father Bobby; after learning the truth about the abuse that the boys suffered, he reluctantly agrees to perjure himself. Father Bobby testifies at trial that John and Tommy were with him at a New York Knicks game at the time of the shooting, producing three ticket stubs as proof. As a result, John and Tommy are acquitted. Ferguson is told by the judge not to leave town because people will want to ask him questions.

The remaining abusive guards are punished for their crimes. Addison, who became a politician and continued to molest children, is abducted and killed near the local airport by gangsters led by Rizzo's older brother, Eddie "Little Caesar" Robinson, who heard the truth about Rizzo's death from King Benny. Styler, now a corrupt police officer, is imprisoned for taking bribes and murdering a drug dealer.

After the acquittal, Michael, Shakes, John and Tommy meet with Carol at a local bar to celebrate. It is the final time that the four men are together. Shakes remains in Hell's Kitchen and becomes a trainee reporter. Michael quits the DA's office, moves to the English countryside, becomes a carpenter and remains unmarried. John and Tommy both die before age 30; John succumbs to alcohol poisoning, while Tommy is ambushed and murdered by rival criminals. Carol remains in Hell's Kitchen as a social worker; she has a son, naming him John Thomas Michael Martinez and nicknaming him "Shakes".

Cast

Production

Lorenzo Carcaterra first submitted a manuscript of his book Sleepers to Ballantine Books, which immediately attracted interest from multiple film companies. Ultimately, Propaganda Films managed to obtain the movie rights for $2.1 million at an auction in February 1995. Barry Levinson was attached as director mere days afterward and opted to write the screenplay himself.

The first words spoken in the film are: "This is a true story about friendship that runs deeper than blood". When the film was released, there was controversy about how much of the novel claimed to be a true story and how much had been invented by Carcaterra. The truthfulness and factual accuracy of the film — and the book on which it is based — were challenged by the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church and School in Manhattan (the school attended by Carcaterra) and by the Manhattan District Attorney's office, among others. Carcaterra has acknowledged that most details in the book were fictionalized but maintained that the events described in the book actually occurred.

Brad Pitt was cast alongside Robert De Niro in July 1995, and filming began the following month, in August 1995. In response to the fast pace of the production process, Ballantine scheduled the book to be released around the same time that De Niro and Pitt were cast, in August 1995. Emilio Estevez was cast as John Riley but was already involved in three movies that year; Sandra Bullock was cast as Carol Martinez but was already involved in the movie A Time to Kill and was thus replaced by Minnie Driver. As they had previously worked together on Diner, Kevin Bacon was approached by Levinson to play the role of Sean Nokes but did not read the book until after he accepted the role. Due to the logistics of filming, Bacon did not meet De Niro or Dustin Hoffman until the film's premiere in Venice.

Release

Box office

In its opening weekend, the film grossed $12.3 million from 1,915 theaters in the United States and Canada, debuting atop of the box office. Sleepers grossed $53.3 million domestically and $112.3 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $165.6 million.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 76%, based on 62 reviews. The site's critics consensus reads: "Old friendships are awakened by the need for revenge, making Sleepers a haunting nightmare burdened by voiceover yet terrifically captured by Barry Levinson." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 49 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" (on a scale of A+ to F).

Critics praised the performances of De Niro, Hoffman, Bacon and the young cast, as well as the cinematography and production design. However, multiple critics said the film loses focus in its second half. Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly wrote: "Sleepers wants to do something impossible — merge the mournful, drenched-in-shame emotions of child abuse with the huckster gamesmanship of a contraption like The Sting."

David Ansen of Newsweek criticized Levinson's script and asserted that the adult characters of Shakes Carcaterra (Jason Patric), Michael Sullivan (Pitt), John (Ron Eldard) and Tommy Marciano (Billy Crudup) were not fully fleshed out. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded the film three stars of four. Steve Davis of The Austin Chronicle wrote: "What a more interesting film this would have been had Levinson found a way to integrate the past and the present so that one informed the other."

Accolades

Home media

The film was released on VHS, Laserdisc and DVD on April 1, 1997, and on Blu-ray on August 2, 2011. The film was also released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray on April 21, 2026.

Notes

References

External links

Sleepers at IMDb

Sleepers at Box Office Mojo

Sleepers at Rotten Tomatoes

Sleepers at Metacritic

Sleeper at BehaveNet Movies