Sleeper - Quick Movie Review

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Title: Sleeper

Release Date: 1973-12-17

Genres: Classics, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Comedy


High essence:

"The Story Jazz clarinet musician and co-owner of a Greenwich Village health food store, nerdy Miles Monroe (Woody Allen), finds himself 200 years in the dystopian future in the year 2173 - he was cyrogenically 'frozen' in aluminum foil when complications arose - after entering a New York hospital in 1973 for what he thought was a minor peptic ulcer operation."

"Sleeper is his version of 1984 or Brave New World, presented as a slapstick comedy a la Chaplin or any of the other silent slapstick films."

Medium essence:

Tim Dirks:
  • The climax occurs when he and his love interest, a rich, clueless, pseudo-intellectual poetess named Luna Schlosser (Diane Keaton in her second appearance with Allen in a film, but in her first Allen-directed film) attempt to assassinate The Leader (a wheel-chair bound dictator with a white dog), who is ultimately reduced to a benign, disembodied nose after a bombing - and then steam-rolled.
  • Filled with one-liners, Allen's film both satirizes the 1970's and parodies sci-fi books and past classics, such as Buck Rogers Serial (1939), Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and As' THX 1138 (1971) , George Orwell's futuristic novel 1984 , and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World .
  • The Story Jazz clarinet musician and co-owner of a Greenwich Village health food store, nerdy Miles Monroe (Woody Allen), finds himself 200 years in the dystopian future in the year 2173 - he was cyrogenically 'frozen' in aluminum foil when complications arose - after entering a New York hospital in 1973 for what he thought was a minor peptic ulcer operation.

Ted Prigge:
  • When the scientists ask him to help them with data from the 20th century that they don't understand, he gives them joke answers.
  • His job is to find the Underground in the western district since he has no data compiled in him.
  • Sleeper is his version of 1984 or Brave New World, presented as a slapstick comedy a la Chaplin or any of the other silent slapstick films.

Low essence:

Tim Dirks:
  • In the classic fish-out-of-water comedy, he soon finds out that he is considered both a subversive alien fugitive by the Big Brother-type totalitarian government and a savior to the rebels wishing to overthrow it, led by Erno Windt (John Beck).
  • The climax occurs when he and his love interest, a rich, clueless, pseudo-intellectual poetess named Luna Schlosser (Diane Keaton in her second appearance with Allen in a film, but in her first Allen-directed film) attempt to assassinate The Leader (a wheel-chair bound dictator with a white dog), who is ultimately reduced to a benign, disembodied nose after a bombing - and then steam-rolled.
  • Miles' performance as an inept servant-robot, with a silver-painted face and dome on his head, in a household during a party, and his struggle against killer pudding with a broomstick.
  • This film was from Allen's earlier period, when he was known for appearing in or directing lightweight comedies, such as Take the Money and Run ) , and Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* But Were Afraid to Ask (1972) .
  • Filled with one-liners, Allen's film both satirizes the 1970's and parodies sci-fi books and past classics, such as Buck Rogers Serial (1939), Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and As' THX 1138 (1971) , George Orwell's futuristic novel 1984 , and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World .
  • It also evokes such slapstick comedy as Harold Lloyd the Keystone Kops, Chaplin's Modern Times (1936) and the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup (1933) .
  • The Story Jazz clarinet musician and co-owner of a Greenwich Village health food store, nerdy Miles Monroe (Woody Allen), finds himself 200 years in the dystopian future in the year 2173 - he was cyrogenically 'frozen' in aluminum foil when complications arose - after entering a New York hospital in 1973 for what he thought was a minor peptic ulcer operation.

Ted Prigge:
  • When the scientists ask him to help them with data from the 20th century that they don't understand, he gives them joke answers.
  • Miles says, Yes, that's exactly what it was.
  • His job is to find the Underground in the western district since he has no data compiled in him.
  • Before he can really say no, the Security Police come by and erase their minds for treason.
  • Sleeper is his version of 1984 or Brave New World, presented as a slapstick comedy a la Chaplin or any of the other silent slapstick films.
  • Miles makes fun of it later on, saying, What do you do if it breaks?

Source:
http://www.filmsite.org/slee.html
http://reviews.imdb.com/Reviews/78/7894