Sleepers (film)

Sleepers is a 1996 American legal crime drama film written, produced and directed by Barry Levinson, and based on Lorenzo Carcaterra's 1995 book of the same name. The film stars an ensemble cast including Kevin Bacon, Jason Patric, Brad Pitt, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Minnie Driver, Vittorio Gassman, Brad Renfro, Ron Eldard, Jeffrey Donovan, Terry Kinney, Joe Perrino, Geoffrey Wigdor, Jonathan Tucker, Bruno Kirby, and Billy Crudup in his film debut. The title is an American slang term for juvenile delinquents who serve sentences longer than nine months.

Sleepers was theatrically released on October 18, 1996 by Warner Bros. in the United States, with PolyGram Filmed Entertainment releasing in other territories. The film received positive reviews from critics and was a box-office hit, grossing $165.6 million against a $44 million budget.

Plot

Lorenzo "Shakes" Carcaterra, Tommy Marcano, Michael Sullivan and John Reilly are childhood friends living in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan in the 1960s. Father Bobby Carillo, their parish priest, tries to teach them right from wrong. The boys play pranks and start running small errands for local gangster King Benny.

In summer 1967, the four young teens steal a hot-dog cart. They accidentally roll the cart down a set of subway stairs, severely injuring a man. The boys are all sentenced to serve time at a juvenile detention center called Wilkinson Home for Boys in Upstate New York; Shakes is given six-to-twelve months, while the others are given 12-to-18 months. During their stay, they are repeatedly subjected to sexual abuse and torture by head guards Sean Nokes, Henry Addison, Ralph Ferguson and Adam Styler.