Sleeper (film)
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| Sleeper | |
|---|---|
 original film poster |
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| Directed by | Woody Allen |
| Produced by | Jack Grossberg |
| Written by | Woody Allen Marshall Brickman |
| Starring | Woody Allen Diane Keaton Maria Small Susan Miller |
| Editing by | Ralph Rosenblum |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | 1973 |
| Running time | 88 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Sleeper (1973) is a futuristic science fiction comedy film, written by, directed by, and starring Woody Allen. It is loosely based on the H. G. Wells novel The Sleeper Awakes.
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[edit] Plot
In the movie, The Happy Carrot health food store owner Miles Monroe (Woody Allen) is hospitalized in Saint Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan for an ulcer operation (having gone into the hospital for a check of a peptic ulcer), but ends up in the liquid nitrogen tanks of an immortality institution. He is revived 200 years later in the year 2173 by a subversive organization, as he is the only member of this society without a known biometric identity. The authorities question a power surge at the institute and although Monroe is arrested, he escapes and lives on the run. Monroe joins the rebels as an action commando with the idle Luna Schlosser (Diane Keaton, in a role similar to the one she played in Manhattan).
The dictatorial leader of the society has been killed by a rebel bomb, but this has not been revealed publicly. The only surviving body part is the leader's nose. It is the intent of the administration to clone the leader from this single remaining part, an endeavor known as the Aires Project. A rebel group led by the charismatic Erno Windt (John Beck) intends to disrupt this attempt by stealing and "assassinating" the nose. The unidentifiable Miles Monroe, the only man with no identity in this future age, is essential to accomplishing this task.
This early Allen movie features some memorable concepts, such as Orgasmatron booths (and the related Intoxication orbs passed around at parties), confessional robots, bioengineered hydroponic vegetables (without any other part of the plant) such as hose-fed bananas as large as a canoe, and the cloning of vital organs and entire persons. Many things thought unhealthy in Monroe's time (including deep-fried fatty foods and smoking) are known by future scientists to be extremely good for you. Sometime between Monroe's time in the late 20th century and 2173 there was nuclear warfare, caused "when a man named Albert Shanker got hold of a nuclear device", and due to which much history is obscure or lost. 2173 historians show Monroe some surviving 20th century artifacts (such as a set of novelty wind-up chattering teeth and a crumpled photograph of Joseph Stalin) and ask for explanations. The historians have developed mistaken theories about Howard Cosell and Richard Nixon, which Miles doesn't have the heart to refute. Holding a photo: "This is Bela Lugosi. He was the mayor of New York". Regarding a photo of Nixon: "I'm not sure who he is, but every time he left the White House they counted the silverware".
Jokes include: Robots programmed to behave like Jewish tailors and gay butlers; PhDs in oral sex; a McDonald's restaurant with the sign "Over 795,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Served" (a total of fifty-one 0's, or 795 sexdecillion); and an abandoned 200-year old Volkswagen Beetle that starts up instantly.
[edit] Different cuts of the movie
There are two known cuts of Sleeper. The first, seemingly original cut, contains a dinner scene shortly after Miles (Allen) and Luna (Keaton) return to the house where Miles was originally taken after revival. In the dialogue-less scene, Miles eats in time with a piano soundtrack while Luna watches him in amazement. In another cut distributed in the US, this scene is absent but another, in which Miles shaves using a high-tech mirror and accidentally tunes into the view from the mirror in another bathroom, is present in its place. The latter cut is on the MGM 2000 DVD, which has both a widescreen and full-screen version of the film, a trailer, Spanish dubbing, and French subtitles.
[edit] Production and trivia
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- The movie was filmed in and around Denver, Colorado. The outdoor shots of the hospital were filmed at the Mesa Laboratory of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. The Sculptured House, designed by architect Charles Deaton, is a private home known locally as the "Sleeper House" or "Flying Saucer House" located on Genesee Mountain near Genesee Park, west of Denver.[1]
- The title alludes to the classic science fiction novel When the Sleeper Wakes by H. G. Wells which also deals with a man in suspended animation who awakens in a dictatorial future against which he rebels. However, the plots of Allen's film and Wells' novel otherwise have few similarities. (In the Critical Text of When the Sleeper Wakes, Leon Stover states that Woody Allen actually took over the rights to Wells' book for United Artists and "wildly distorted it" in making the film Sleeper.)
- According to his book Woody Allen on Woody Allen, he originally wanted to do a 3 hour film, Part 1 of it being a New York comedy, the second half taking place in the future. The project was actually greenlit, however Allen decided to abandon the first half and just do the second.
- The soundtrack music is in New Orleans traditional jazz style, by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band with Allen sitting in on clarinet.
- In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted Sleeper the 30th greatest comedy film of all time.
- Also in 2000, the American Film Institute listed Sleeper 80th among its 100 Years… 100 Laughs.
- The Internet Movie Database lists Douglas Rain as, "Evil computer/Various robot butlers (voice)(uncredited)," which was Woody Allen's comedic homage to the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. Rain provided the voice of the computer HAL 9000.
- The Church of the Risen Christ in Denver, known as the "ski-jump" church due to its unusual high pitched roof angle, was featured in the opening scene of the movie, according to church construction contractor Johns Manville Worldwide.
[edit] Quotes
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- Miles: "Don't you see? Political solutions never work! That's what I've been trying to tell you! In six months, we'll be stealing Erno's nose!"
- Historian (showing Miles a tape of Howard Cosell): "We have a theory, that whenever a citizen committed a crime against the state, they were forced to watch this."
- Miles: "Yes, that's exactly what that was."
- Miles: "I bought Polaroid stock at seven, it must be up millions by now!"
- (N.B. At the time of the film's release in 1973, Polaroid was a high-flier but the company eventually filed for bankruptcy in 2001.)
- Miles: "My brain...that's my second favorite organ!"
- Miles (when asked by Luna what the phrase "register commies, not guns" meant): "Oh, he was probably a member of the National Rifle Association. It was a group that helped criminals get guns so they could shoot citizens. It was a public service."
- Miles "It's a 200-year-old Volkswagen!" (Car starts instantly.) "Wow, they really built these things, didn't they?"
- In the back seat of the Volkswagen is a newspaper with the headline "Pope's Wife Has Twins".
- In the film's German dub, the above Volkswagen scene provided for a special in-joke particularly for German audiences as after the car starts, it is Miles's chance to satisfiedly utter Volkswagen's original German slogan for the bug that they used for decades and that remains one of the most popular commercial slogans in Germany of all: "Tja...'Läuft und läuft und läuft!'!" (lit. "(It) runs and runs and runs.") The irony lies in that Volkswagen's German slogan was actually meant to claim thereby that their cars were truly built "for all eternity".
- Dr. Melik: (listing items Miles had requested for breakfast) "... wheat germ, organic honey, and... Tiger's Milk."
- Dr. Aragon: "Oh, yes. Those are the charmed substances that some years ago were thought to contain life-preserving properties."
- Dr. Melik: "You mean there was no deep fat? No steak or cream pies or... hot fudge?"
- Dr. Aragon: "Those were thought to be unhealthy... precisely the opposite of what we now know to be true."
- Dr. Melik: "Incredible!"
[edit] References
- ^ The Sculptured House. Kentwood Homes Tour. Retrieved on 2006-04-15.
