| Photos (See all 18 | slideshow) | Videos |
| Woody Allen | ... | Miles Monroe | |
| Diane Keaton | ... | Luna Schlosser | |
| John Beck | ... | Erno Windt | |
| Mary Gregory | ... | Dr. Melik | |
| Don Keefer | ... | Dr. Tryon | |
| John McLiam | ... | Dr. Agon | |
| 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 | |
| Stanley Ross | ... | Sears Swiggles | |
| rest of cast listed alphabetically: | |||
| John Cannon | ... | Various Voice-Overs (voice) | |
| Regis Cordic | ... | Party Guest (uncredited) | |
| Howard Cosell | ... | Himself - on Wide World of Sports (archive footage) (uncredited) | |
| George Furth | ... | Guest at Luna's Party (uncredited) | |
| Laurence Kirchmar | ... | McDonald's Kid (uncredited) | |
| Jackie Mason | ... | Robot Tailor (voice) (uncredited) | |
| Richard Nixon | ... | Himself - Checkers Speech, Discloses His Personal Finances (archive footage) (uncredited) | |
| Albert Popwell | ... | Reprogramming Scientist (uncredited) | |
| Douglas Rain | ... | Evil Computer / Various Robot Butlers (voice) (uncredited) | |
| Whitney Rydbeck | ... | Janus (uncredited) | |
Directed by | |||
| Woody Allen | |||
Writing credits | ||
| Woody Allen | (written by) and | |
| Marshall Brickman | (written by) | |
Produced by | |||
| Marshall Brickman | .... | associate producer | |
| Jack Grossberg | .... | producer | |
| Charles H. Joffe | .... | executive producer | |
| Ralph Rosenblum | .... | associate producer | |
| Jack Rollins | .... | executive producer (uncredited) | |
Original Music by | |||
| Woody Allen | |||
Cinematography by | |||
| David M. Walsh | (director of photography) | ||
Film Editing by | |||
| O. Nicholas Brown | (film editor) | ||
| Ron Kalish | (film editor) | ||
| Ralph Rosenblum | (edited by) | ||
Casting by | |||
| Lynn Stalmaster | |||
Production Design by | |||
| Dale Hennesy | |||
Set Decoration by | |||
| Gary Moreno | |||
| Robert De Vestel | (uncredited) | ||
Costume Design by | |||
| Joel Schumacher | |||
Makeup Department | |||
| Del Acevedo | .... | makeup | |
| Janice Brunson | .... | hair stylist | |
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director | |||
| Fred T. Gallo | .... | first assistant director | |
| Henry J. Lange Jr. | .... | second assistant director | |
Art Department | |||
| Barry Bedig | .... | property master | |
| Charles Deaton | .... | architect: Doctor Melik's house | |
| Jack M. Marino | .... | assistant property master | |
| Gary Martin | .... | set coordinator (as Gary O. Martin) | |
| Dianne Wager | .... | set designer | |
| Gary Martin | .... | construction (uncredited) | |
| James T. Woods | .... | set painter (uncredited) | |
| Robert L. Zilliox | .... | lead man (uncredited) | |
Sound Department | |||
| Al Gramaglia | .... | rerecording: Magno Sound Recording Inc. | |
| Norman Kasow | .... | sound effects editor: Filmsounds, Inc. | |
| Jack Solomon | .... | sound mixer | |
| Jess Soraci | .... | sound effects editor: Filmsounds, Inc. | |
| Joe Kenworthy | .... | swing (uncredited) | |
| Al Yaylian | .... | boom operator (uncredited) | |
Special Effects by | |||
| A.D. Flowers | .... | special effects | |
| Gerald Endler | .... | location special effects (uncredited) | |
Visual Effects by | |||
| Bill Hansard | .... | background projection | |
| Harvey Plastrik | .... | opticals | |
| Ralph Rosenblum | .... | visual effects editor (uncredited) | |
Stunts | |||
| M. James Arnett | .... | stunt coordinator | |
| James M. Halty | .... | stunts (uncredited) | |
Camera and Electrical Department | |||
| Joseph Edesa | .... | gaffer | |
| Norman Harris | .... | best boy (as Norman L. Harris) | |
| Clyde Hart | .... | key grip (as Clyde W. Hart) | |
| Roger Shearman | .... | camera operator | |
| Bill Avery | .... | still photographer (uncredited) | |
| Richard N. Hannah | .... | camera technician (uncredited) | |
| Victor King | .... | second assistant camera (uncredited) | |
| Don Whipple | .... | dolly grip (uncredited) | |
Costume and Wardrobe Department | |||
| Arnie Lipin | .... | wardrobe supervisor (as Arnold M. Lipin) | |
| G. Fern Weber | .... | wardrobe supervisor | |
Editorial Department | |||
| Trudy Ship | .... | assistant editor | |
Music Department | |||
| Felix Giglio | .... | music supervisor | |
| The New Orleans Funeral Ragtime Orchestra | .... | music | |
| Preservation Hall Jazz Band | .... | music (as The Preservation Hall Jazz Band) | |
| Phil Ramone | .... | music recordist | |
Transportation Department | |||
| Joe Sawyers | .... | transportation captain (as Joe R. Sawyers) | |
| Richard Enoch | .... | driver (uncredited) | |
| Donald H. Lewis | .... | driver (uncredited) | |
| Russell McEntyre | .... | driver (uncredited) | |
| Bill Van Hoek | .... | driver: cine II (uncredited) | |
Other crew | |||
| Antonio Encarnacion | .... | assistant to the producer (as Tony Encamacion) | |
| Jean Gingerich | .... | production accountant | |
| Norman Gorbaty | .... | title designer | |
| Doris Grau | .... | script supervisor | |
| Lori Imbler | .... | production secretary | |
| R.J. Louis | .... | location coordinator | |
| Joel Marrow | .... | assistant to the producer | |
| Peter J. Silbermann | .... | unit publicist | |
| Ben Bova | .... | science consultant (uncredited) | |
| Elizabeth Claman | .... | secretary to director (uncredited) | |
| Peter Herald | .... | representative: United Artists (uncredited) | |
| Johnny Jensen | .... | technician: Cinemobile (uncredited) | |
| Teresa Stokovic | .... | production secretary (uncredited) | |
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| Full cast and crew | Company credits | External reviews |
| News articles | IMDb Comedy section | IMDb USA section |
In this early comedy, Woody Allen plays Miles Monroe, a twentieth century healthfood restaurant owner and jazz clarinettist who is cryogenically frozen after surgery and awoken two centuries later. The America of 2173 is a totalitarian state ruled by an oppressive dictator, and Miles has been reanimated by a group of rebels fighting to overthrow the government. For reasons too complex to set out here, Miles is forced to go on the run disguised as a robot and finds himself falling in love with his new owner, an attractive but intellectually vacant young woman named Luna. The film recounts how Miles wins Luna over to the rebel cause and tells the story of their fight against the regime.
Unlike some of Woody's later films, this is a pure comedy. It does not try to explore philosophical issues or to analyse the human condition in the same way as, say, "Hannah and her Sisters" or "Crimes and Misdemeanours". Although I normally think of Woody as a master of verbal wit, much of the humour in "Sleeper" is physical slapstick, based upon (and no doubt deliberate homage to) the comedians of the silent era such as Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton. (I particularly liked the scenes where Woody is disguised as a robot and those where the villains are attempting to clone the dictator, killed in a bomb explosion, from his nose). The links with that era are reinforced by the musical score, composed by Woody himself, in a jazz/ragtime style reminiscent of the 1910s and 1920s. The sets, by contrast, are very futuristic, with the clinical glass-and-chromium look of many science-fiction films. The combination of a futuristic theme with a traditional style of comedy is doubtless why the film was advertised under the slogan "Woody Allen takes a nostalgic look at the future".
This is not, however, simply a pastiche of silent humour like the one Mel Brooks was to attempt a few years later in "Silent Movie". This being a Woody Allen film, there is also a good deal of verbal humour, particularly one-liners along the lines of "I haven't seen my analyst in 200 years. He was a strict Freudian. If I'd been going all this time, I'd probably almost be cured by now". (As that line suggests, Miles is the typical, neurotically insecure Woody Allen character). As is often the case with humorous science-fiction (such as Douglas Adams's "Hitchhiker" books), the humour is frequently used to make satirical points about twentieth-century society as seen from the viewpoint of an imagined future. Contemporary worries about our diet are neatly satirised by a joke about how the science of two hundred years hence has proved that fatty foods and smoking are actually beneficial to health whereas what we now think of as healthfoods are regarded as unhealthy. This joke has remained topical because anxiety about what we eat is, if anything,even greater today than it was in 1973. There is perhaps also a dig at seventies "radical chic" as the vacuous conformist Luna becomes an equally vacuous revolutionary. (The plot of "Sleeper" seems to owe something to another tongue-in-cheek science-fiction film from a few years earlier, "Barbarella", which also dealt with rebellion against a dictator and even featured similar "orgasmatron" machines; the star of that film, Jane Fonda, had by 1973 become Hollywood's most famous radical chic actress).
The humour of "Sleeper" is often directed against figures from the sixties and seventies- perhaps too much so, as this type of humour tends to date very quickly. Some of it is still funny (such as Diane Keaton's Marlon Brando impersonation), but some can now be difficult to understand, particularly for non-Americans. (I had no idea, for example, who Howard Cosell was- apparently he was a sports commentator). That is, however, a minor quibble. Overall, this is an entertaining film and, in places, very funny, combining successfully two very different styles of humour. 7/10