List Price: $14.98You Pay Only: $9.99 You Save: $4.99 (33%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
Brand: PITT,BRAD
EAN: 9780790729398
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 0790729393
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: April 01, 1997
Running Time: 148 minutes
Sales Rank: 3995
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: October 18, 1996
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Dramatization of the true story of four boys who are imprisoned for a year in the Wilkinson Home for Boys changing them forever. As adults one is a lawyer, one a reporter, & two are professional hit men and all are still filled with the pain & fear of their year in Wilkinson.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 3-FEB-2004
Media Type: DVD
Amazon.com:
The first thing you need to know about Sleepers is that it's based on a novel by Lorenzo Carcaterra that was allegedly based on a true story. The movie repeats this bogus claim, which was attacked and determined by a wide majority to be misleading. Knowing this, Sleepers can be a problematic movie because it's too neat, too clean, too manipulative in terms of legal justice and dramatic impact to be truly convincing. And yet, with its stellar cast directed by Barry Levinson, the movie succeeds as gripping entertainment, and its tale of complex morality--despite a dubious emphasis on homophobic revenge--is sufficiently provocative. It's about four boys in New York's Hell's Kitchen district who are sent to reform school, where they must endure routine sexual assaults by the sadistic guards. Years after their release, the opportunity for revenge proves irresistible for two of the young men, who must then rely on the other pair of friends (Brad Pitt, Jason Patric), a loyal priest (Robert De Niro), and a shabby lawyer (Dustin Hoffman) to defend them in court. Despite the compelling ambiguities of the story, there's never any doubt about how we're supposed to feel, and the screenplay glosses over the story's most difficult moral dilemmas. And yet, Sleepers grabs your attention and pulls you into its intense story of friendship and the price of loyalty under extreme conditions. The movie's New York settings are vividly authentic, and Minnie Driver makes a strong impression as a long-time friend of the loyal group of guys. --Jeff Shannon
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Dealing With Child Abuse: Can "Street" Revenege Or Manipulating Legal/Authorative Systems Help The Abused?
Because films are frequently the closest contact people have with certain subjects, one must look at how this film approaches a very real and socially escalating problem: "child abuse" (as well as the acknowledged, but never dealt with "spousal" and "familial abuses") and the consequences of such "abuse." Let me state for the record that even though I have taught numerous classes on this subject, and frequently in disagreement with my peers, I find it repulsive that we as a society and nation belittle reality with the term "abuse." It is my belief that there is nothing "abusive" about another person assaulting or terrorizing another person, and that it is demeaning, stigmatizing, stereotyping, and trivializing to say it is "abuse." Moreover, I would argue that it is a consequence of not recognizing that the story in the film is about assault and battery, and the terrorizing--not "abuse"-- of children (and others), that the makers and stars of the film were unsure how to present the story in more poignant and dramatic fashion.
Despite one's position ("abuse" versus assault/terrorism) on the subject mater of the story, the script and theme of the film--which really is more about how to "deal" with the effects of such actions--can only be described as cynical and pessimistic at best; and, more realistically, illegal/morally corrupt and vigilantism. Because, as far as I am concerned, what the film is about, when the movie ends, is that revenge is sweeter than either the victim's health ... Read More
Rating:  - EXCEPTIONALLY FINE AND DISTURBING MOVIE
"Sleepers" is an exceptionally fine and disturbing movie. The cast is superb. Kevin Bacon does a fearsome job in a thoroughly repellent role. Robert De Niro plays a warmly sympathetic, street-knowledgable priest, and Brad Pitt does a very compelling job with his role as a prosecutor who sets up an important payback. Dustin Hoffman could not be better in his portrayal of a disgruntled, unsuccessful defense attorney. And he's nothing to look at in the role. It's one of his finest performances. "Sleepers" is a rewarding, haunting movie.
Rating: - Great Movie, DVD leaves out authenticity
The movie is fantastic and I picked it up for ten bucks cause I love the acting, and how they systematically get their revenge. Its not in a Stallone or Schwarzenegger Im-going-to-shoot-everyone-dead-who-ticked-me-off kind of way. They use the court system, mobsters, and corruption to their advantage.
What disappointed me, is that in the theatrical release, they have a short text at the beginning of the movie detailing what a Sleeper is, and some text at then end before the credits roll stating something to the effect that "...the [Court] has no record that such a trial ever took place and no record of sex abuse in the Boys school (yada yada) Lorenzo Carcaterras stands buy his story." These texts are left out.
Why???
Was it so controversial that they decided to take it out of the DVD release? I know that sounds silly to complain, but when you read info like that, it gives the movie more mystery, authenticity, character. You know this is someone's story who claims its true even if its not. If someone watched this version, even if they knew about the book, would think the book and movie may be 100% fiction, instead of it being allegedly based off true events.
I dunno...was a little bummed by this as it lacks that punch to it. But it was nice to watch the fantastic acting, engaging story, and climax to the end. I am just bummed that this was cut out.
Rating:  - Last 30 min of movie is miising. Pirated junk
The last 30 min of the movie is missing. Do not shop from this vendor.
Rating: - DVD Sleepers
I had previously viewed this movie several years ago. It was a favorite back then and it is today. I had forgotten the excellent cast and since Minnie Driver is my all time, number one, top of the list, female actresses, it is a DVD that I will treasure and watch again and again over my remaining years. Who can forget the roles played by Brad Pitt, Robert DeNiro, Kevein Bacon, Jason Priestly, etc, etc, etc. An excellent movie that did not get the media attention that it deserved.
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