Gene Siskel - Host: Now, the performances in "Sleepers" are uniformly fine, but the movie is meaningless. There are a lot of colorful macho bonding moments that are glorified like some long beer ad that we're watching. Sexual abuse in prison is a bad thing, of course, and condemned, but so what? "Sleepers" simply argues for lethal revenge, but not very thoughtfully. It's a colorful con game, and the passion and the soul and the revere of filmmaking of Scorsese's similarly-themed "Mean Streets" haunts every shot in this picture. "Sleepers", for me, is phony. Thumbs down.
Roger Ebert - Host: Well, I agree with a lot of what you said. I'm giving it thumbs up, because I felt the performances and the drama of the movie do work on that level. But I disagree with you that it's meaningless; it has meanings that I disagree with. And here are a couple of them: First of all, basically, that guard gets the death penalty, he's shot dead, because of sexual abuse. They're saying there's nothing worse than a homosexual rape, and if you doubt that, play the movie back, and the kids were only beaten but not abused, and see how the murder would play, it wouldn't work the same way.
Gene Siskel - Host: Well, of course!
Roger Ebert - Host: These people are all homophobic in the movie. Second, there's not a moment's line of dialogue or a moment's scene to establish that Robert De Niro's character would do what he does on the stand.
Gene Siskel - Host: Th-that's true.
Roger Ebert - Host: And that flies totally in the face of everything he believes in.
Gene Siskel - Host: But then, I have one question, and people listening to you now have another- have the same question: Why are you endorsing the picture?
Roger Ebert - Host: Uh, because although I disagree with it on ideological grounds, and I also believe, by the way, it's not really based on a true story, because I give it three stars because as a movie, you get you get your money's worth because of those great performances. Think of Gassman, think of Hoffman...
Gene Siskel - Host: You don't have to tell me, I liked the performances!
Roger Ebert - Host: There's a lot of good stuff in the movie.
Gene Siskel - Host: I just said so, but Roger, that's the polite three-star review that I think is the death of film criticism.
Roger Ebert - Host: It is- it's a polite three-star review, you're right, Gene. It's not the death of film criticism...
Gene Siskel - Host: You gotta be tougher.
Roger Ebert - Host: I just did some criticism.
Gene Siskel - Host: You gotta be tougher.
