Sleepers 1996 123movies

Watch: Sleepers 1996 123movies, Full Movie Online – As children, Lorenzo Carcaterra – Shakes to his friends – Michael Sullivan, Tommy Marcano, and John Reilly were inseparable. They grew up in Hell’s Kitchen, a far from perfect neighborhood, one filled as Shakes says with scams and shake downs, but one where the rules were known and easily understood by its residents. The one adult who they admired was Father Bobby Carelli, who understood them as kids more than most adults and more than he himself would like to admit. In 1967, their lives would change forever when a typical teenage prank went wrong which led to the four of them being sentenced to various terms at Wilkinson Home for Boys, a reformatory. There, they were physically, emotionally and sexually abused primarily by Sean Nokes, the predatory lead guard of their cell block, and fellow guards Ralph Ferguson, Henry Addison, and Adam Styler, although there were other decent figures of authority at the home, including a few other guards. Their time at the home affected the four, not all who were able to emerge from the experience to regroup their lives. In their want to forget about the experience, they made a vow not to talk about it either between themselves or with others. Fast forward thirteen years, with Tommy and Johnny being career criminals, Michael an assistant district attorney and Shakes a newspaper writer, their friendship on the surface more loose than it was when they were children. When Tommy and John unexpectedly spot Nokes at a local restaurant, it leads to Shakes and Michael banding together to exact revenge not only on Nokes but all four of the guards who abused them. Michael had long mapped out a plan even before Tommy and John saw Nokes, but that sighting and its aftermath alters the plan. Beyond the precarious position Tommy and John place themselves into, Michael has the most to lose even if the plan succeeds. Most of the plan implementation is left to Shakes who has to enlist the machine of Hell’s Kitchen, including mob boss King Benny, and their childhood friend, social worker Carol Martinez, who currently is John’s girlfriend. Beyond co-opting aging lawyer Danny Snyder, who admits he may not be the best choice as an alcoholic who is no longer near the top of his game, the plan is threatened by a key piece, the need for an unreproachable figure to perjure him or herself, that person who Michael and Shakes hopes will be Father Bobby. Father Bobby, even if he knew of the abuse, may not be able to do his friends this enormous favor of an illegal nature, he who has to balance the morality of the situation in his own mind in deciding what to do..
Plot: Two gangsters seek revenge on the state jail worker who during their stay at a youth prison sexually abused them. A sensational court hearing takes place to charge him for the crimes.
Smart Tags: #child_molestation #sexual_abuse #sexual_predator #sadistic_rape #gore #revenge #rape #physical_assault #perversion #child_rapist #molestation #child_sexual_abuse #sexual_child_abuse #child_molesting #bloody_violence #rapist #payback #crime_against_child #revenge_killing #vigilantism #shot_in_the_head

Find Alternative – Sleepers 1996, Streaming Links:

123movies | FMmovies | Putlocker | GoMovies | SolarMovie | Soap2day

Ratings:

	7.5/10 Votes: 224,429
	73% | RottenTomatoes
	49/100 | MetaCritic
	N/A Votes: 2968 Popularity: 22.413 | TMDB

Reviews:

***Justifiable execution and justifiable lying***

“Sleepers” (1991) starts out as a coming-of-age film about four boys in 1966-1967 from Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan, and then morphs into a juvenile prison picture, which covers the first hour. The rest of the movie is a crime tragedy turned courtroom drama, taking place 13 years later in the early 80s. Jason Patric plays the adult version of Shakes, the main protagonist and narrator, while Brad Pitt plays his attorney friend, Michael. When their other two buds, John and Tommy, are taken into custody for murder they hatch a plan to get them off for understandable reasons. Robert De Niro plays their Catholic pastor and father-figure while Dustin Hoffman appears as the dubious defense attorney. Kevin Bacon is on hand as a perverse guard at the boys’ reformatory.

In an eye-rolling knee-jerk response, liberal critics have dissed the film as “homophobic” when this isn’t the case at all. For verification, if the victims at the reformatory were girls the baseless criticism wouldn’t even be mentioned. It is not about gender; it is about children and the monstrous abuse of authority for selfish purposes. The film NEVER criticizes what two adults CHOOSE to do behind closed doors.

In tone and theme, “Sleepers” is similar to the heralded “Mystic River” (2003), but more episodic in nature and therefore not as dramatically compelling. Yet it’s a poignant crime drama. Some have panned the movie on the grounds that it justifies revenge murder, but it more clearly supports the idea of just execution when legal authorities have failed and allowed gross corruption to continue.

Another moral issue revolves around lying. Is it ever right to lie for the sake of justice? In other words, is lying ever justifiable? Of course it is; at least on rare occasions. For instance, in the bible the midwives lied to Pharaoh in order to save Hebrew infants and are commended for fearing God (Exodus 1:15-21). Rahab also lied to save the two Hebrew spies in Jericho and her actions are hailed in Hebrews 11, the Hall of Faith chapter. During WW2, if Nazi authorities came to your door looking for hidden Jews, would you say “Yes, I cannot lie; they are hiding in the attic”? Of course you wouldn’t.

The script by director Barry Levinson was based on a book by Lorenzo Carcaterra, which is supposedly a true story. Although New York authorities have denied its authenticity, they have good reason to do so. Whether or not every jot & tittle is accurate is irrelevant; stories LIKE IT have happened.

The film runs 2 hours, 27 minutes and was shot in New York City & surrounding areas (Brooklyn, Manhattan, Yonkers, Hoboken) and Fairfield Hills Hospital, Newtown, Connecticut (Wilkinson School for Boys). ADDITIONAL CAST: Minnie Driver plays the guys’ friend from their youth while Vittorio Gassman is on hand as a nonchalant mob leader in Hell’s Kitchen.

GRADE: B

‘Sleepers’ uses a disturbing and unnecessary narration to tell its controversial revenge story, but the rich characters and great actors easily make up for that.

8/10

Obviously a worthwhile story enacted by a fantastic cast…but still not an easy film to like
Director Barry Levinson also adapted Lorenzo Carcaterra’s allegedly factual memoir about four rambunctious boys from Hell’s Kitchen on the west-end of Manhattan in the late 1950s. The youngsters are incarcerated into a boys’ detention home for 18 months after a prank on a hot dog vendor goes horribly wrong; there, they are molested regularly by a group of guards, and twenty years later two of the kids–now hell-raising adults–get their revenge by shooting the most vicious guard to death in a restaurant. The way the plot plays out, with a genuinely original take on the whole courtroom procedure, is rather brilliant…yet, on the other hand, the details of this story make the film difficult to wade through, and Levinson’s style (flashing back to the attacks in blue-tinted staccato takes) is off-putting. Worse, Levinson’s dialogue is occasionally thick with writer’s ink–no actor could make it sound convincing–while short-cut tricks such as the use of narration over important footage falls flat. Imagine this story as told by a stronger filmmaker, say Martin Scorsese. “Sleepers” is too locked-in as being a ‘prestigious epic’; somehow, the sweep of the narrative never catches fire, and it’s never as moving as it is meant to be. There are still several very good sequences here nevertheless, and many of the actors (particularly Dustin Hoffman as an untried defense lawyer and Robert De Niro as a buddy priest) are excellent. **1/2 from ****

Other Information:

Original Language en
Runtime 2 hr 27 min (147 min)
Budget 44000000
Revenue 165615285
Status Released
Rated R
Genre Crime, Drama, Thriller
Director Barry Levinson
Writer Lorenzo Carcaterra, Barry Levinson
Actors Robert De Niro, Kevin Bacon, Brad Pitt
Country United States
Awards Nominated for 1 Oscar. 1 win & 5 nominations total
Production Company N/A
Website N/A

Technical Information:

Sound Mix Dolby Digital
Aspect Ratio 2.35 : 1
Camera Arriflex 535, Panavision Cameras and Lenses
Laboratory Technicolor, Hollywood (CA), USA (prints), DuArt Film Laboratories Inc., New York, USA (color)
Film Length 4,122 m
Negative Format 35 mm (Eastman EXR 50D 5245, EXR 200T 5293, EXR 500T 5298)
Cinematographic Process Super 35
Printed Film Format 35 mm (anamorphic)