Hammerman Ikon

Hammerman Ikon Film Guide

Sleepers
1996
**
Director: Barry Levinson
Cast: Jason Patric, Brad Pitt, Kevin Bacon, Robert De Niro, Minnie Driver

In the late 1960s four young boys in Hell's Kitchen pull a prank that goes horribly wrong. The boys are sent to a reform school where they are physically and sexually abused. The only shocking aspect of this controversy-courting drama is its hypocrisy. Sexual abuse is the most horrific thing in the world, but murder is OK. Based on Lorenzo Carcaterra's book, which was sold as a work of non-fiction but is apparently mostly made up.