Sleepers (1997, VHS)

Based on the story of four boys growing up in the same neighborhood and forced to spend a year together in a hell known as the Wilkinson Home for Boys, you are introduced to the men they have become. Some went good, some went bad - but none of them forgot the horror they all shared and never spoke of. Another film with the background of guards mistreating prisoners (albeit boys), you find another look into the face of revenge most sweet. Fortunately an excellent cast helps you overlook the violence and unnecessary evil in this movie - Jason Patric, Brad Pitt, Minnie Driver, Kevin Bacon,...

The story is basically a tale of four boys who unintentionally commit a terrible crime (i.e., they kill a street vendor while trying to steal his hot dog cart), spend time in a juvenile detention facility, are terribly abused by the guards there, and what they do about this as young adults. The boys are portrayed by Brad Renfro, Joseph Perrino, Jonathan Tucker, and Geoffrey Wigdor, and then, as adults, by Brad Pitt, Jason Patric, Billy Crudup, and Ron Eldard. I have three, basic comments. First, on a technical level, this is a well-made movie. The script is compelling, the characters are deep.

What disappoints me the most about Sleepers is that it could have been a really intelligent action/revenge thriller. There are even scenes that offer a flash or two of the brilliance the movie could have offered. What went wrong, you ask? Let me tell you. The Plot The first part of Sleepers is set in Hell s Kitchen in the mid 1960 s. It is a place, as the annoying voiceover solemnly informs us, of innocence ruled by corruption. In that atmosphere, four friends Shakes (short for Shakespeare, played by Joseph Perinno), Michael (Brad Renfro), Tommy (Jonathan Tucker), and John (Geoffrey Wigdor)...

In this drama based on characters in Lorenzo Carcaterra's controversial book, four boys from Hell's Kitchen enter a reformatory where a cruel guard (Kevin Bacon) abuses them. Years later, two of them avenge their tormenter and stand trial. This is an exquisitely crafted tale of revenge out of Hell's Kitchen. Four young teenage boys are sent to a reform school where they are regularly sodomized, beaten, and molested by four homosexual guards. Their shared experience is life altering as they suffer in silence, drift apart, and grow up. Years later, an opportunity to even the score arises. The...