Sleeper (1973)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Woody Allen

Writers:

Woody Allen (written by) and
Marshall Brickman (written by)

Release Date:

17 December 1973 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

A love story about two people who hate each other. 200 years in the future.

Plot:

A nerdish store owner is revived out of cryostasis into a future world to fight an oppressive government.

Plot Keywords:

Future | Sex | Robot | Orgasmatron | Health Food

Awards:

2 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Woody Allen	...	Miles Monroe
Diane Keaton	...	Luna Schlosser
John Beck	...	Erno Windt
Mary Gregory	...	Dr. Melik
Don Keefer	...	Dr. Tryon
John McLiam	...	Dr. Aragon
Bartlett Robinson	...	Dr. Orva
Chris Forbes	...	Rainer Krebs
Mews Small	...	Dr. Nero (as Marya Small)
Peter Hobbs	...	Dr. Dean
Susan Miller	...	Ellen Pogrebin
Lou Picetti	...	M.C.
Jessica Rains	...	Woman In The Mirror
Brian Avery	...	Herald Cohen
Spencer Milligan	...	Jeb Hrmthmg

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Yiddish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Netherlands:6 | Finland:K-11 (new rating: 2001) | Brazil:12 | Argentina:13 | Finland:K-12 | France:U | Iceland:Unrated | Ireland:12 | Sweden:11 | UK:15 | USA:PG | West Germany:16 (nf) | Singapore:PG | Canada:PG

Filming Locations:

Boulder, Colorado, USA

Company:

Rollins-Joffe Productions

Trivia:

According to editor Ralph Rosenblum, Woody Allen filmed and then deleted a fantasy sequence in which Miles plays a game of chess with life-sized chess pieces, and is then sentenced to death by the chess pieces after he loses the game.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Miles is first awoken from the cryogenic freezing process he has tin foil under his suit. During the process of sitting up, the foil mysteriously disappears from around his neck/chest area.

Quotes:

[a 22nd century historian shows Miles a videotape of Howard Cosell]
Historian: We weren't sure at first what to make of this, but we developed a theory: we feel that when people committed great crimes against the state, they were forced to watch this.
Miles Monroe: Yes. That's exactly what it was.

Movie Connections:

Features Computer Space (1971) (VG)

Woody Allen's Second Best Movie After Annie Hall

I think I am going to have to rank this as Woody Allen's second-best (and second-funniest) movie... after the unbeatable "Annie Hall". Even after having seen the movie 3 or 4 times I still find myself amused by some of Allen's shtick... and his rarely-demonstrated adeptness at physical comedy. So many classic physical bits: riding around in the wheelchair... eating the rubber glove... the future scientists trying to force his slack body into a futuristic vehicle. After this movie Woody started to get a little too cerebral... this was his last attempt at a just-plain-funny movie... and probably his most satisfying of his early comedies... only because there was a sort-of storyline. Woody is cryogenically frozen after a botched operation in the 1970s and is awoken 200 years later to find himself in a repressive Orwellian future. He meets up with a spoiled rich chick (Diane Keaton) and influences her (not really intentionally) into becoming a revolutionary activist.