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Release Date:
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October 15th, 1996
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Availability:
Regular U.S. release.
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Awards:
Nominated for an Academy Award, 1996
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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... only if you are prepared for one of Williams' most oppressing
and gloomy scores of heavy drama.
Avoid it... if you don't prefer Williams' use of synthesizers and
ambience as a substitute for orchestral focus and thematic presence.
Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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Sleepers: (John Williams) The only score of 1996 for
legendary composer John Williams would also serve as his first collaboration
with director Barry Levinson. For the film adaptation of Lorenzo
Carcaterra's novel, Levinson assembled an outstanding principle cast for
Sleepers. The story of torture, homophobia, and vengeance claimed in
the opening line of the film to be based on true events, a somewhat
unsubstantiated point of controversy surrounding the film at the time of its
release. Whether true or not, the subject matter of Sleepers is
unpleasant at best. Four boys growing up on the west side of New York steal
a hot dog wagon for fun and the runaway cart accidentally crushes a
bystander. While consequently in a reformatory, they are sexually and
physically abused by a cruel and perverted guard. Twenty years later, in
1981, two of the boys kill the guard and the other two, a lawyer and a
journalist, become involved in a conspiracy to cover their tracks and clear
their names of the crime. Topics of honor, religion, revenge, and morality
all abound in Sleepers, with depths of character observation that
float the film aided by the success of the plot and its genuine depictions
of the New York setting. For Williams, the mid-1990's were a period in his
career when he had left behind the adventuresome themes of action and
fantasy; his projects had dwindled in number and gravitated towards topics
of a more serious, dramatic nature. While his scores after his outstanding
1993 duo, extending through Saving Private Ryan five years later,
remain less memorable for casual film music collectors, much of his work
during that time is not only fascinating to study, but it still
characteristically continued to garner Academy Award nominations for the
composer. An odd entry for Williams in this era was Sleepers, a score
reaching outside of his usual harmonious, tonal nature and creeping in the
realm of the tormented psyche. For many Williams collectors, Sleepers
is an above average entry, a crafty and understated score that makes for a
superior background listen. While this may be partially true,
Sleepers also suffers from a complete lack of center and focus,
causing its identity to be defined, ironically, by its lack of
identity.
It's not often that Williams allows synthesizers to
dominate his scores; in the 1990's and beyond, they have served only an
auxiliary role. But anyone who remembers back to Heartbeeps will
recall that Williams has the capability of conjuring some really
uncharacteristic sounds with an array of electronics at the forefront. He
does this in Sleepers, combining his synthesizers with a traditional
orchestra in methods that will likely startle you as much as the score did
for veteran Williams listeners when it debuted. Along with keyboarding
effects, Williams utilizes an electronic bass with a heavy hand, causing a
significant portion of the score to drone as solo instruments from the
orchestra meander in the distance. Harsh keyboarding tones from JFK
ramble without remorse, and metallic sounds tear and rip over the score's
several highly dissonant crescendos of pure noise. Williams' rhythms in
Sleepers nearly save it from its own despair, frantically whipping up
a frenzy in short bursts that never manage to assert themselves by the end.
It is this inconsistency in sound the causes Sleepers to be
disjointed beyond repair. We hear typical Williams' sounds and thematic
motifs hinted at every turn, but none of them is ever established over
another. The concert piece for Sleepers is the orchestral "Hell's
Kitchen," which features a fragmented line that serves as Williams' only
theme from the film. Its intentionally wandering focus, even with entire
ensemble in charge, makes it difficult to remember beyond its few satisfying
chord progressions. Most of these progressions will remind the listener of
Williams' disaster themes of the 1970's, although after this concert
statement, he reminds us that Sleepers is not a 70's score. In "The
Football Game," Williams offers the most interesting and enjoyable idea from
the score: an all-out, rhythmically charged scherzo with rambling piano and
bass highlighted by sharp brass notes and a modern percussive sense of
"coolness." After this cue, Williams then turns to a liturgical choral piece
for "Saying the Rosary" before diving once again into the murky depths of
his synthesizers. It's this kind of schizophrenic movement that causes the
demise of Sleepers. You get the impression that Williams was
attempting to repeat the stark suspense of Presumed Innocent and fuse
it with some of the raw energy from JFK. But without a clear thematic
construct, or even a consistent instrumental execution, however,
Sleepers fails at that task. The only thing it leaves you with is a
feeling of gloomy discomfort... which was probably the intent, but it makes
for a poor listening experience. **
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Viewer Ratings and Comments:
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• 1. Sleepers at Wilkinson (3:41)
• 2. Hell's Kitchen (5:23)
• 3. The Football Game (4:09)
• 4. Saying the Rosary (6:53)
• 5. The Trip to Wilkinson (2:35)
• 6. Time in Solitary (4:23)
• 7. Revenge (2:46)
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• 8. Michael's Witness (4:09)
• 9. Learning the Hard Way (5:21)
• 10. Last Night at Wilkinson (3:51)
• 11. Father Bobby's Decision (3:56)
• 12. Reliving the Past (3:40)
• 13. Reunion and Finale (5:30)
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Insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
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