Have you ever asked yourself: "what would Stand By Me be like if the kids didn't just find a dead body, but were responsible for one?"
A fascinating look into how society and it's darkest components shape its citizens. "This is a true story about friendship", the opening lines of the movie are true, on a base level. I imagine large parts of it are fictionalized, but it is a story of friendship and revenge, at first. But to me, Sleepers is a film about responsibility. The responsibility we owe to the people we care about, whether it's to our friends or in Robert Deniro's case, to our alter boys, or Brad Pitt's responsibility to the law he chose to…

We all have one.

Those films we're aware are not brilliant and yet we know every word, scene change and musical cue.

At 16 in '97, Lorenzo Carcaterra's novel was a transformative experience. The first book I'd read set in an adult world, a cruel world too. Being a very sullen teen it had a lasting appeal and engrossed me like no book had ever done.

When I saw the film I was too much in love with this story of friendship and revenge, so was just overjoyed to be spending time in it. I watched Sleepers a LOT back in the day.

Suffice to say, i've always seen its flaws. I've always disliked Jason Patrics dull narration, i've always…

Barry Levinson's Sleepers has a cast to die for. De Niro, Pitt, Hoffman, Bacon, Patric, Crudup, and Minnie Driver give this crime drama real class, but Levinson's script, at times, meanders just a little too much. Adapted from Lorenzo Carcaterra's novel of the same name, this film courted controversy with both its subject matter and the notion that it was a true story. Needless to say, this is a film of two distinct halves, one set in the late sixties, the rest in a courtroom in 1981.
When four young boys play a prank which results in a serious injury to a stranger, their lives are changed forever. Sent to a reform school where they are sexually abused and tortured…

I read Lorenzo Carcaterra's about half a year before I saw this film, back in the late 90's. The novel had a powerful voice and story really troubled me, so I wasn't looking forward to watching it, but a friend insisted and I'm not the most stubborn guy in my crowds of friends, so I gave in ... and I hated it. The film recently appeared on Netflix, so I decided to give it another go, and it was better that I thought.

Sleepers' plot is a story of child abuse and physical torture of children and its consequences in later years. The film won't explain why the abuse happens - we don't get inside the head of the abusers…

Featuring one of the most stellar male casts ever assembled, I did have Stand By Me gone bad vibes through much of the first half, as we focus on four boys, the closest of friends, who end up in reform school after a prank gone bad, only to be abused and tortured by a sadistic group of guards there. The second half of the film takes it's lead from the Count of Monte Cristo, as a chance encounter in a bar 13 years later gives the boys a shot at vengeance.

There are so many strong performances here, and some scenes, while nothing is ever really graphic or explicit (in keeping I think with the way the boys repressed and…

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…

65 von 100
Vorab: Der Film ist wirklich sehenswert. Die erste Hälfte des Filmes, als die Protagonisten noch jung waren, war brillant. Die zweite Hälfte jedoch, hinterfragt man hier ein wenig mehr..leider enttäuschend. Natürlich fühlen wir als Publikum mit, denn jeder kann sich die Frage selbst stellen: Wenn mir dies passiert wäre, würde ich dann nicht auch Selbstjustiz wählen? Jedoch sind Fragen dieser Art meist sehr einfach zu beantworten und noch einfacher zu stellen. Es ist keine Leistung das solch ein Thema jemanden berührt. Was sagt uns dieser Film allerdings darüber, was mit Menschen passiert die sexuell misshandelt wurden sind? Das war mir zu platt und zu wenig. Alle gehen ihren eigenen Weg, die einen schaffen es, die anderen nicht.…

This is one of those overlooked films that for some reason are never heard of. I cannot recall Sleepers ever mentioned in any list, favourites, or forgotten gems. Not sure why because it involves serious subject matter, an ensemble cast full of stars who all bring their A-game, and a director fully capable of providing the guidance to achieve the right tone.

I was enthralled by this film. It does an excellent job transitioning between three or four distinct stories across a long timespan. It perhaps doesn't have the epicness of Once Upon a Time in America or Goodfellas, but more than achieves its intended scope.

The only two minor negatives I had were the meandering pace at times. But…

8,5/10. Sleepers (1996) ist ein Drama von Barry Levinson mit Jason Patric, Robert De Niro, Brad Pitt, Kevin Bacon und Dustin Hoffman in den Hauptrollen. Die vier Freunde aus dem New Yorker Stadtviertel Hell's Kitchen hatten nur einen harmlosen Streich im Sinn, ohne mit den schwerwiegenden Konsequenzen zu rechnen. Ihre Kindheit endet von einem Tag auf den anderen und sie landen im Jugendknast, wo sie der sadistische Aufseher Sean Nokes auf bestialische Weise misshandelt. Als sie die Freunde als Erwachsene wiedertreffen, wollen sie vor allem eines: Rache. In einer Bar erschießen sie ihn und es kommt zu einem nervenauftreibenden Gerichtsprozess.

Dabei entsteht ein richtig starkes Drama, was in zwei Hälften zu unterteilen ist. Der erste Teil des Films spielt zu…