Sleepers is a 1996 legal drama film written, produced, and directed by Barry Levinson, and based on Lorenzo Carcaterra's 1995 novel of the same name. Lorenzo "Shakes" Carcaterra, Thomas "Tommy" Marcano, Michael Sullivan, and John Reilly are four childhood friends who grew up in Hell's Kitchen, New York City in the mid-1960s. During this time, the local priest, Father Bobby Carillo, plays a very important part in their lives and keeps an eye on them. However, early on they start running small errands for a local gangster, King Benny. On a summer day in 1967, their lives take a sharp turn when... they almost kill a man after pulling a prank on a hot dog vendor. As punishment, they are all sentenced to serve time at the Wilkinson Home for Boys in Upstate New York. There, the boys are systematically beaten, abused, and raped by guards Sean Nokes, Henry Addison, Adam Styler, and Ralph Ferguson. These traumatic events change the boys and their friendship forever. Fourteen years later, John and Tommy, now gangsters, find Sean Nokes in a Hell's Kitchen pub. After reintroducing themselves to Nokes, they both shoot him dead in front of several witnesses.
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