Sleepers (1997, DVD)

The story is basically a tale of four boys who unintentionally commit a terrible crime (i.e., they kill a street vendor while trying to steal his hot dog cart), spend time in a juvenile detention facility, are terribly abused by the guards there, and what they do about this as young adults. The boys are portrayed by Brad Renfro, Joseph Perrino, Jonathan Tucker, and Geoffrey Wigdor, and then, as adults, by Brad Pitt, Jason Patric, Billy Crudup, and Ron Eldard.

I have three, basic comments. First, on a technical level, this is a well-made movie. The script is compelling, the characters are deep, and the acting is quite good. The four young actors, who portray the characters as boys, do a fine job, and the adult quartet follows up nicely. Robert DeNiro and Dustin Hoffman provide powerful additions to the cast, with DeNiro playing the priest who has tried to help these boys throughout their lives, and Hoffman as an almost-washed-up but potentially-great lawyer.

Secondly, there is some controversy, as this film is based upon a novel, which the author avows is based upon a true story. There is, apparently, little corroborating evidence for its veracity, and it has been denounced by many officials of the State where it allegedly transpires. As a viewer, I have no independent way to judge the truth or falsity of the story, and I proceeded in watching the film, as if it were fiction that might have truth behind it.

Thirdly, there is a significant moral conflict within this movie, and it left me troubled. Regardless of whether or not the story is true, the question arises, "Does abuse of a child excuse later abuse or crime perpetrated by that now-adult person who was abused?" The characters in the film blithely (for the most part) answer that question with a resounding, "Yes!" After two of the four abuse victims get revenge on one of the guards, the other two set out to accomplish two tasks: make sure that all of the abusive guards are exposed and punished; rescue the two who took revenge, from the consequences of their actions. The two (Jason Patric and Brad Pitt) who did not break the law to get revenge, act as if those two, separate purposes are one.

In my view, these are separate issues. Exposing the abuse and making sure the offending guards are punished, is a just cause. With Brad Pitt a prosecuting attorney and Jason Patric working in journalism, they had the means to accomplish that goal. But, why do they condone the actions of the other two, and break the law to rescue them? The where-are-they-now sequence at the very end, shows that the "rescuing" accomplished nothing, except to let their boyhood friends further self-destruct and wreak more havoc. Robert DeNiro, who portrays a priest who tries to help the boys grow up right, amidst poverty and crime, is the only one who struggles with the morality of the situation, and I strongly disagree with that character's eventual decision.

The bottom line, for me, is that this is a well-told and well-acted story, but I have strong reservations about the morality portrayed in the film. I end up seeing no good guys. Perhaps that is true-to-life, but the tale could have been told just as well, but differently.