Review of Sleepers (1996) by Dawdlingpoet — 21 Nov 2021

This is a crime thriller film, featuring themes including abuse, humiliation and revenge. This film features a surprisingly large amount of background character information, with the plot being slowly revealed. The film is quite long at just under 2 and a half hours and its a sobering watch, with some distressing scenes of blatant child abuse, including sexual child abuse. I found myself feeling quite sorry for the main characters, the 4 boys, for many reasons, most obviously for being victims, victims of more than one type - victims of their adolescence, as well as their abuse. Their depicted very much as being young and scared but trying their utmost not to show it, for fear of obvious repercussions while incarcerated.

The film features some relatively jerky camerawork - there are flashback type scenes depicted in which the one visible colour is a very light blue, giving it a spooky, eerie effect. The camerawork gives the viewer a sense that what their seeing is coming from someones dreamlike recollections and is not entirely a depiction of what happened when...there's an emotional element to it, although the lack of colour also perhaps points to a sombre side as well.

Music wise, there are a number of classic 60s pop tunes played in the first part of the film, including 'Walk Like A Man' by Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, Gimme Some Lovin' by Spencer Davis and 'Hurdy Gurdy Man' by Donovan. Aside from the 60s tunes are songs such as 'Tainted Love (Where Did Our Love Go) by Soft Cell'. A full list of the songs featured in the film can be found on IMDB.com of course. Generally speaking the tracks are surprisingly upbeat, certainly at the start of the film in any case, which clashes with the obviously rather dark and sombre tone of the film later on, as the plot develops. Cast wise, Billy Crudup plays Tommy, while Ron Eldard plays John and Brad Renfro plays young Michael, with Jason Patric playing Shakes as an adult and Joe Perrino playing him as an adolescent. They all give very good performances, showing their fear and vulnerability, while also giving an air of bravado. Also present are Robert De Niro, who plays the local priest that the boys grow up knowing, Father Bobby, who also visits them while their serving their sentence in juvenile. Meanwhile, Dustin Hoffman plays the lawyer Danny Snyder, who is less than happy to take on the case the boys propose. He is quite a quiet and unsuspecting sort of a person, which made me surprised that he would happen to be a lawyer, someone you expect to be (especially in America) very extroverted and a bit of a show off at the least. Also present, cast wise, are Brad Pitt, who plays Michael as an adult and Minnie Driver, who plays Carol, Mikey's partner.

Oh and then there's Kevin Bacon, who plays one of the key characters in the film - in this case, one of the detention officers, Nokes. He is really quite chilling in his depiction of a clearly evil man, who abuses his authority in shocking ways. I'd say his performance, along with that of Robert De Niro, their both the most stand out performances, or were to me in any case. One thing I did notice was that De Niro (obviously) didn't seem to age between scenes in which he's the priest during the boys young adolescence and scenes multiple years later but that is perhaps a bit of a 'nit pick' point and I wouldn't say it exactly ruins the believability of plot overall or the film in general, of course.

Unsurprisingly, the film is quite tough viewing and features a lot of disturbing and potentially upsetting and sobering content. For a start, there is some partial nudity and various sex references, although no explicit sex scenes shown as such (no doubt just as well, given the context). There are some instances of violence, which are between (I'd say) mild to moderate and includes gunfire related violence, including bloody injuries which are depicted on different people. The film features characters who talk about their drug and drink addictions/issues, although there are no scenes depicting drug use. The film was originally given a 15 rating but that was changed to an 18 rating when the film was released on video and, later, DVD and Blu-Ray. It dates from 1996, for the record.

Also, as an aside, apparently the term 'sleepers' refers to people who have been in juvenile detention centres, hence the title of the film. It wasn't a term I was aware of but it made sense once I heard that, so I thought I'd mention that, to clear up the reason why the film is called what it is. Plus, at the very end there is (as is present in some films) an explanation of what happened to various characters after the time depicted in the plot, which leads me to believe that its based on a true story, making it all the more sombre and sobering.

Yes, I thought that this was a relatively well made film. It covers some tough issues and it won't suit everyone but it has good characterisation and a decent plot.