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Sleepers (1996) is a dramatic movie based on Lorenzo Carcaterra's novel of the same name. Carcaterra alleges that the story is true, although much evidence exists to contradict the majority of the events depicted. Tagline: Four friends have made a mistake that will change their lives forever
SynopsisSpoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
As the events of the 1960s (e.g. Vietnam, the civil rights movement) unfold, their neighborhood remains locked in time as the boys realize that all of these radical change groups protected by money and upper class standing couldn't care less about the inhabitants of their neighborhood i.e. poor whites. On a hot summer day, the boys see a Greek hot dog vendor whom they and the other neighborhood kids don't respect and tend to rip off. They decide to play a prank which involves stealing hot dogs, and ends up with the boys unexpectedly stealing the vendor's hot dog cart. A near-fatal accident occurs which results in the hot dog cart falling down a subway stairway, crushing a man at the bottom of the stairs. Tommy, Michael, and John are sentenced to 12 to 18 months and Shakes was sentenced to 6 to 12 months at the Wilkinson Home for Boys in upstate New York; the judge tells them that it was only Father Bobby's intervention that kept them from a longer and harsher sentence. Upon arriving to the Wilkinson home, they realize that they are not as fit for prison as the rest of the kids there. As described in the novel, the majority of the offenders, Black and Puerto Rican youths, are serving time for violent drug-related crimes. The rest of the inmates, principally Irish and Italian kids like themselves, are in primarily for assault charges and gang activity while in the company of older men. These four do not belong to a street gang and were seen in their neighborhood as relatively good kids whom the adults, many of whom served time in these facilities, did not think would ever end up in prison. As a result, the guards (Nokes, Addison, Styler, and Ferguson) readily abuse the Hell's Kitchen quartet as they do not respect them as violent criminals who could react with deadly force. One night the four guards take them to the basement where they gang rape the four boys as an assertion of power and authority over the youths. Throughout their stay, the guards continue to abuse them and other inmates physically and sexually, often while drunk, over any possible infraction. When Father Bobby visits, he explains to them that he and his best friend served time at Wilkinson and his best friend, now at Attica Correctional Facility, was killed internally by Wilkinson and warns them that the same will happen to them if they let the place get to them. When the guards put together a team of inmates to play them in a touch football game, the four are selected and think that they can use this as an opportunity to get back at the guards physically. They ask inmate Rizzo (Eugene Byrd), a fearsome Black inmate on the team who the guards tend to avoid, to lead the team in assaulting the guards during the game. This goes through and the inmates win but the guards out of revenge toss them into solitary confinement and kill Rizzo as they are locked away. During the remainder of their stay, they are left hopeless and fear every night during which they stay at Wilkinson. Shakes is the first one released after ten months.
As the two of them have both been hardened by prison and are currently the leaders of their own gang, they don't think twice before murdering him (in front of several witnesses; their status as gang leaders make it unlikely many people will testify against them). Shakes and Mikey (played by Jason Patric and Brad Pitt) enlist the help of their childhood friend Carol Martinez (Minnie Driver), Father Bobby, a local cop named Nick Davenport (Daniel Mastrogiorgio), King Benny, and a struggling lawyer, Danny Snyder (Dustin Hoffman) to guarantee the acquittal of their friends and expose the actions of the guards and abuses at the center. Snyder's career is floundering as he battles with alcoholism and drug abuse. King Benny, by now elderly but still very much in control of his turf, pressures Snyder to work what appears to be a hopeless case. Mikey is an assistant District Attorney and arranges to be assigned to the case, secretly intending to lose as a means of getting revenge on the Wilkinson home. Shakes is a low-level editorial assistant at the New York Times, and uses contacts from this position to gather background information on the guards at Wilkinson's. Carol is a social worker, and uses her office to access files on Wilkinson's. Guard Styler, now a policeman, is arrested for murdering a drug dealer by the NYPD internal affairs division led by Davenport, and Guard Addison is killed by black gangsters led by Rizzo's older brother Little Caesar (Wendell Pierce) after hearing the truth about how his brother really died in prison from King Benny. In the courtroom Guard Ferguson, now a social worker on Long Island, is discredited as a character witness, and the sexual abuses perpetrated by the guards are exposed in open court. At first Snyder appears bungling and disorganized, using mainly material supplied to him anonymously by Shakes and Mikey, but as the trial progresses he begins to be effective, as he successfully casts doubt on several prosecution witnesses. To clinch the case, after a long talk with Shakes and Carol, Father Bobby lies on the stand about where John and Tommy were the night of the shooting. Father Bobby claims they were at Madison Square Garden at a Knicks game with him and as a result, they are found not guilty as the jury does not doubt the word of a priest (ticket stubs to the game, surreptitiously supplied by King Benny, help convince the jury). From there, the boys are reunited for a last time for a celebratory party at a Hell's Kitchen bar. In a brief epilogue, it is revealed that after the trial, John and Tommy return to their lives of street crime, and both die violently within a few years of the trial. Mikey, stigmatized by the D.A.'s office for losing an apparently open-and-shut case, resigns from office and gives up the practice of law, moving to England to live alone in the country. Shakes remains in New York, and becomes a full-time writer. Carol also remains in New York, where she becomes a single mother to a son she names after all four of her childhood friends. Spoilers end here.
Truth versus fictionThough Carcaterra claims that the book is a true story, critics have asserted that the majority of it, if not all of it, is fictional:
Carcaterra states that everything he wrote was true, but that he did change names, dates and places to protect the identities of those involved, making it difficult to independently verify the facts. As an example, he states that he moved the location of the trial to Manhattan. If the trial had taken place in another jurisdiction, such as a different borough of New York or in New Jersey, that would not be reflected in the Manhattan district attorney and court records. The book also explains that school records were altered to show that the boys were in school during the time they were actually in Wilkinson. It is not surprising that only records for Carcaterra exist as his is the only real name used. The version of the film shown on US cable, although uncut, contains disclaimers before the end credits stating that the New York youth correctional authorities and the Manhattan district attorney's office deny that the events in the film took place. A final title card states that Carcaterra stands by his story. See also
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