1996 Hit Crime Film With Controversial True-Story Claim Named Among ‘Best Movies to Stream’

Barry Levinson’s 1996 crime drama Sleepers is once again drawing attention after being named among Rotten Tomatoes’ best movies to stream at home, nearly 30 years after its original release. 

The film, which starred Robert De Niro, Brad Pitt, Kevin Bacon and Dustin Hoffman, remains one of the most talked-about legal crime dramas of the 1990s because of its dark story and long-running debate over whether its “true story” claim was real.

The movie currently holds a 76% critics score and an 85% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Released in October 1996, the film earned $165.6 million worldwide against a $44 million budget and became a major box-office success.

Based on Lorenzo Carcaterra’s 1995 book of the same name, Sleepers follows four boys from Hell’s Kitchen in New York who are sent to a juvenile detention center after a prank badly injures a man. Inside the facility, the boys suffer abuse from guards. Years later, two of them seek revenge after recognizing one of their former abusers in a restaurant.

From the start, Sleepers presented itself as a true story. The opening line of the movie says: “This is a true story about friendship that runs deeper than blood.”

That claim quickly became controversial after the film’s release. Questions were raised by the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church and School in Manhattan and by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, both of which reportedly said there were no records matching the events described in the story.

Carcaterra later admitted that parts of the book were fictionalized, though he continued to insist the abuse described in the story really happened.

Film critic Roger Ebert openly challenged the movie’s truthfulness in his original review. He wrote, “I doubt it is anything of the kind, and Lorenzo Carcaterra’s novel, which inspired the movie, has been convincingly attacked on its claim to be based on fact.”

Ebert also questioned the film’s moral choices, especially the revenge plot involving the adult characters. He wrote, “The movie’s real subject is a homophobic revenge fantasy, which it justifies with the Cosa Nostra version of honor.”

Even with those criticisms, Ebert still praised several performances in the movie. He said, “Dustin Hoffman gives a fine, subtle, quavering performance,” while also calling Kevin Bacon “a strong, effective villain.”

The debate around Sleepers resurfaced recently after director Barry Levinson spoke with TheWrap about the film’s new 4K release from Warner Bros.

Levinson said he was mainly interested in the story itself rather than proving whether every detail was factual.

“I just was fascinated by the story. Period,” Levinson told TheWrap. “I thought, That’s an interesting story. It’s worthwhile to tell.”

The director also addressed the controversy surrounding the “true story” label, saying, “I wasn’t that interested in, you know, trying to do a true tale of so and so.”

When the movie first premiered in 1996, Levinson defended Carcaterra’s claims. According to reports at the time, the filmmaker said, “If he was lying, it would be an astoundingly facile lie.”

Levinson recently supervised the movie’s updated 4K version, which includes small visual and sound improvements. He described the remaster as “a first-class tweak.”

The movie’s cast remains one of its biggest draws. Alongside De Niro, Pitt, Bacon and Hoffman, the film also featured Minnie Driver, Jason Patric, Billy Crudup and Brad Renfro.Nearly three decades later, Sleepers continues to divide viewers because of its violence, revenge themes and disputed “true story” background.

Related: 1992 Hit Film, Adapted From a Broadway Show, Ranked Among ‘Most Rewatchable Movies’ of All Time