SLEEPERS
... by both priests and gangsters. Hell’s Kitchen is a place of refuge for many neighbourhood kids from troubled homes. In the beginning of the film, we are introduced to the boys dancing to a soft melodious song. This portrays the innocence and happiness the boys had before their confinement to the reformatory school. The shadows and the bars in the introduction symbolize the underlying confusion and conflict that the viewer is not yet aware of. There is a disadvantage and an advantage to the narrative technique used throughout the film. The disadvantage being that the film is told from one person’s prospective and therefore is a bias opinion. However, the advantage is that the viewer is able to form a personal relationship with the narrator. The second scene, of the boys sun-tanning, is very symbolic. The colours of the buildings are warm and earthy. The high angle of the camera creates the sense of the happiness and laziness the boys are feeling. They are also lying on one blanket. This symbolizes the unity of the boys, but being on top of a building isolates them from the community. Under Shakes' influence they all became caught up over one particular book called The Count of Monte Cristo. Its theme of unfairness and decisive revenge melded with that of the boys’ revenge over “Notes”. One summer day, an event occurred in the four boys' lives that changed their fates forever. Hot, bored and restless, the four boys planned a street prank, more for some entertainment than any other reason. Their reckless stealing of a hot-dog vendor's cart got dangerously out of control and before they were caught, their “plan” almost killed a man. Charged with a list of juvenile crimes including assault and reckless endangerment, they were sentenced to between nine and 18 months at a reform school. In the neighbourhood slang, the length of their terms, more than nine mo...