Skip to main content

Retribution


SLEEPERS is a legal thriller drama that tells the account of four boys from New York City's Hell's Kitchen. In the process of committing petty theft, the boys commit a prank that goes horribly wrong, severely injuring a man. As punishment, the boys are tossed into detention hall, where they are brutalized, assaulted and sexually abused by the guards.

Over a decade later, the two of the quartet who have turned to a life of crime encounter one of their former tormentors and have the opportunity for payback. As the ringleader of the detention hall guards, Kevin Bacon is at his absolute creepiest as the deeply disturbing Sean Nokes. He is pivotal to the four boys’ descent into hell and submission into his evil persona. In the bar scene where he meets his demise sets the wheels in motion for the payback.

Stellar performance by Jason Patric, Brad Pitt, Billy Cudrup, Ron Eldard, Kevin Bacon, Minnie Driver, Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman in this 1996 flix which displayed Barry Levinson's versatility in film making. This is one of several films that I can watch time after time and still be highly engaged.




On a separate note, societies can talk about the concept of retribution. Why does the murder of Sean Nokes seem justified? Is it? Why are some of the characters able to move forward with their lives while others seem to be destroyed by their abuse? How does the characters' socioeconomic position figure into this punishment, if at all? 


===============

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Heritage

  The word batik is thought to be derived from the word ' ambatik' which translated means 'a cloth with little dots'. The suffix ' tik' means little dot, drop, point or to make dots. Batik may also originate from the Javanese word ' tritik' which describes a resist process for dying where the patterns are reserved on the textiles by tying and sewing areas prior to dying, similar to tie dye techniques. Another Javanese phase for the mystical experience of making batik is “ mbatik manah ” which means “drawing a batik design on the heart” Until today, the batik’s true origin is still a mystery but what is sure is that batik is a very old form of art. Evidence of early batik has been found in the Middle East, Egypt, Peru, Japan, East Turkistan, Europe as well as India and China (Central Asia) 2000 years ago. Despite its ambiguous origins, batik reached its highest artistic expression in South East Asia, particularly in Indonesia and Malaysia. In the 17th c...
Post a Comment
Read more

ILO

In Brief The International Labor Organization was founded in 1919 and incorporated into the United Nation (UN) as a specialized agency in 1945. It emphasizes the need for workers to enjoy conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity through their employment. The ILO promotes international labor standard through its field offices in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Arab States, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Central Asia. The ILO has 187 state members. 186 of the 193 member states of the UN plus the Cook Islands are members of the ILO. The UN member states which are not members of the ILO are Andorra, Bhutan, Liechtenstein, Micronesia, Monaco, Naura and North Korea. My current stint with the ILO Asia and Pacific Region office located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as its freelance translator and interpreter has provided me with an insight of the informal economy that accounts for jobs that are neither taxed nor monitored by the authorities, and that make up a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Atlas Mountain, Morocco.

Ryan Pyle of Extreme Treks has a lot to say about this...
Post a Comment
Read more