Sleeper (film)
Sleeper (
1973) is a futuristic
science fiction comedy film, written by, directed by, and starring
Woody Allen. The title is likely a reference to the classic
science fiction novel The Sleeper Awakes by
H. G. Wells which also deals with a man in
suspended animation who awakens in a dictatorial future against which he rebels, although the plots of Allen's film and Wells' novel otherwise have few similarities.
In the movie, The Happy Carrot health food store owner Miles Monroe (Woody Allen) is hospitalized in Saint Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan for a
hernia 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 Monroe is arrested and 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 that of
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. 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 is essential to accomplishing this task.
This early Allen movie features some memorable concepts, such as
Orgasmatron booths and a related
Intoxication orb (passed around at parties),
confessional robots,
bioengineered hydroponic vegetables (without any other part of the plant) such as hose-fed
carrots 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
Henry Kissinger) and ask for explanations. The historians have developed interesting theories about
Howard Cosell and
Richard Nixon, which Miles doesn't have the heart to refute.
Jokes include: Robots programmed to behave like
Jewish tailors and
gay butlers; PhDs in
oral sex; a
McDonald's restaurant with a number "Served" containing a '1' followed by
fifty-three 0's; and an abandoned 200-year old
Volkswagen Beetle that starts up instantly.
*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 citizens in your state committed a crime, 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 by millions by now!"
*Miles: "My Brain...that's my second favourite organ!"
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 on Genessee Mountain near the town of Genessee, a short distance west of Denver.
, the structure, known to many as the "Sleeper House", was on the market for
$7.95 million.
Allen originally wanted to do a 3 hour film, Part 1 of it being a New York comedy, the Second Half being The Future . . . Surprisingly the project was greenlit, however Allen decided to abandon the first half and just do the second (Mentioned in his book 'Woody Allen on Woody Allen'
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 Oddysey. Douglas provided the voice of the computer HAL-9000.
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Sleeper - Classic Films at booksmusicfilmstv.com
