Barry Levinson Is Still Annoyed by the Controversy Surrounding ‘Sleepers’

Since Barry Levinson’s directorial debut, 1982’s “Diner,” the filmmaker has had a remarkable run.

Through the 1980s and ’90s, he touched a number of genres and made just as many classics – from baseball drama (1984’s “The Natural”) and Amblin adventure (1985’s “The Young Sherlock Holmes”) to period comedy (1987’s “Good Morning, Vietnam”), Zeitgeist-capturing, Oscar-winning dramas (1988’s “Rain Man” and 1991’s “Bugsy”) and timely erotic thrillers (1994’s “Disclosure”). There were also, of course, his Baltimore movies, which followed in the wake of “Diner” – 1987’s “Tin Men” and 1990’s “Avalon.” Even his big swings, which didn’t connect, are endlessly fascinating. There’s still nothing like 1992’s “Toys” (more on that in a minute).

But none of his films from this period courted controversy like 1996’s “Sleepers,” an all-star thriller about retribution and the sins of the past where a group of kids, after an accident, are sent to a youth detention facility where they are systematically abused. Years later, they plot their revenge on those responsible for their prior harm.

In celebration of its 30th anniversary, Warner Bros. has issued a new 4K Blu-ray release that is probably the best the movie has ever looked (or sounded).

It was producer Steve Golin, Levinson said, who brought him Lorezno Carcaterra’s 1995 book, reportedly based on Carcaterra’s actual life (he’s played in the movie by a brooding Jason Patric). The filmmaker told Golin he’d take a shot at writing the screenplay; afterwards, he agreed to direct it.

“I just was fascinated by the story. Period. It wasn’t like, Well, I want to do a revenge movie or whatever. I just like the idea of kids screwing around with the hot dog vendor and stealing the cart and an accident that happened that basically sent them to a reform school upstate. And then, ultimately, there was sexual abuse that took place,” Levinson told TheWrap. “Then you know, years later the whole progression of it. I thought, That’s an interesting story. It’s worthwhile to tell. It’s not advocating one thing or another, or the film takes a position that, politically, this is what we believe it was like. It’s just, look at how one thing led to another and to another and another thing.”

Given the movie’s cast, which includes Brad Pitt, Kevin Bacon, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Bruno Kirby, Billy Crudup and Minnie Driver, we wondered if it was one of those scripts that actors were climbing over themselves to try and get attached to. But Levinson said that wasn’t the case; while people were interested, his concern was more about scheduling.

“I know that I met with Brad and had a good conversation with him, and then he said, ‘Yeah, yeah, good.’ And he then he came in. Bob was reasonably a short period of time. Dustin had an issue scheduling, I think,” Levinson recalled. Vittorio Gassman, he noted, had to be flown in from Italy. But it all worked out: “It started to fall into place reasonably quickly.”

And while Emilio Estevez was reportedly first cast in the role that eventually went to Ron Eldard, Levinson said he can’t remember whether or not that really occurred. Consider that particular mystery still open.

When “Sleepers” was released, however, it was mired in controversy around what actually happened and what was made up. A contemporaneous article from the New York Times notes how the film starts with the narration, “This is a true story about friendship that runs deeper than blood.” “But two questions hover over the film… Is that statement accurate, and does Hollywood care?” the article added (the original book was published as nonfiction).

Both the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church and School on the West Side of Manhattan (where Mr. Carcaterra attended school) and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said “there were no records of a case like the one described in the book.”

At the time, Levinson defended the film and said that, after talking with Carcaterra, he believed the story was real. “’If he was lying, it would be an astoundingly facile lie. To me, the book makes sense and is credible,” he told the Times in 1996.

Thirty years later, he seems even more annoyed.

“I mean, it was much more of an issue with whether is it really true or not true? I wasn’t that interested in, you know, trying to do a true tale of so and so. The story seems interesting enough to me and it’s not like we’re advocating something,” he shared. “Therefore, you don’t need to have more documentation or whatever, because that’s our point of view. I was interested in the storytelling of it all, not simply like the exposé that opened the door to the abuses. We’re not going to get to that in this kind of a film.”

While the movie was a sizable hit, making $165 million globally on a $44 million budget, more than $100 million of that came from international markets. As Levinson said, that was because “it wasn’t bogged down with whether or not it was a true story.”

When we told the director that it sounded like the controversy was haunting him, he didn’t correct us. Thankfully, Levinson supervised the 4K UHD disc that was just released by Warner Bros., which he called “a first-class tweak.”

Still, he tends not to watch his own movies again, “Because I made the movie and that’s the movie.” But he’s made an exception for “Sleepers.” Throughout the film, he was able to adjust the lighting and did additional minor work, including improving sound issues that bothered him (but, he asserts, nothing like David Fincher turning a Coke can around for the 4K of “Panic Room”).

“This was simply, this could be a little bit darker here and this light here could be a little bit brighter – minor things that I think would just look better to me,” Levinson explained. “There are a couple things I think, Gee, these are nice improvements that we’ve really accomplished.”

Now that he’s taken another look at “Sleepers,” is there any other movie from his catalog that he’d like to revisit? “I haven’t really thought about that,” said Levinson.

But what about “Toys?” The movie feels oddly prescient, since it’s about a U.S. Army Lieutenant General who takes over his dead brother’s toy company and sets about having kids pilot little airplanes with real bombs, predicting the proliferation of drone warfare by decades. It is also one of the most beautiful-looking movies of all time, with designer Ferdinando Scarfiotti inspired by surrealist René Magritte and more contemporary, postmodern artists like architect Michael Graves. Is even had perhaps the most unforgettable teaser trailer of all time, featuring star Robin Williams directly addressing the audience.

At the time, it was misunderstood and openly maligned. “At the end of the day, I never really get into major criticism with whatever the reviews are on something, only because that’s the way they see it. You can’t get into an argument about it. Throughout the years, the criticism of ‘Toys’ was, It’s not really a kids’ movie. I didn’t know that it was supposed to be a kids’ movie,” Levinson said. “It was dealing with something way beyond that. It was a toy manufacturer of which now we’re seeing elements of with drones, saying we have to, like, downsize the cost. And we see kids basically blowing up things just off computers. That’s the warfare of the future. That’s what I thought the movie was going for.”

Somehow, like the controversy around “Sleepers,” “Toys” was mired in feedback that the movie wasn’t kid-friendly. The movie ended up making only $23.3 million against a budget of more than $50 million. As of today, there’s no way to legally stream or purchase the movie. If anything is deserving of the deluxe 4K treatment, it’s “Toys.”

“I’ve said this to other people, this is the business you’re in and there are certain things you do that you’re going to be criticized for, for whatever reason. Justify it or not, you’re going to get criticized that. That’s part of it,” Levinson concluded. “But if I were to say, in terms of ‘Toys,’ it was a misunderstanding of what the movie was, because it looked childlike so they thought, Well, it’s a child’s movie, as opposed to what the film was really about.”

“Sleepers” is available now in 4K on digital and a 4K UHD physical release, both from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.