{"id":6045,"date":"2017-04-05T18:09:18","date_gmt":"2017-04-05T22:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=6045"},"modified":"2026-03-06T11:41:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T16:41:28","slug":"sleeper-1973","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=6045","title":{"rendered":"Sleeper-1973"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sleeper-1973<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Woody Allen<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Woody Allen, Diane Keaton<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #631<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed April 5, 2017<\/p>\n

Grade: B<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the earliest of Woody Allen’s enormous list of films that he both directed and starred in, 1973’s Sleeper is a comedic, science-fiction film, and a blueprint for future Allen masterpieces, such as Manhattan (1979) and Annie Hall (1977).<\/p>\n

While this film has moments of intelligence and clever dialogue, it too often teeters into straight-up slapstick and silliness, making it hard to hold in the same esteem as the aforementioned richer films.<\/p>\n

Rather, it is a juvenile effort compared to the masterpieces that follow, but admittedly, it has some laughs and creative moments. Sleeper is the first of several to pair Allen with longtime co-star Diane Keaton.<\/p>\n

Allen portrays Miles Monroe, a nerdy jazz musician and owner of the “Happy Carrot” health-food store in Greenwich Village, New York City, sometime in the then-present 1970s.<\/p>\n

In the hospital for routine surgery, he is cryogenically frozen for two hundred years, waking up in an otherworldly police state and frazzled beyond belief.<\/p>\n

The scientists who revive him are part of a rebellion and beg Miles to assist them as they are taken into police custody, pleading with him to search for a secret plan known only as the “Aries Project”.<\/p>\n

Miles then poses as a robotic butler and goes to work for Luna (Keaton), a spoiled, bitchy, socialite. The duo ultimately bonded together and spent the rest of the film outrunning and outsmarting their pursuers.<\/p>\n

Sleeper succeeds as a novel story, one filled with unique and interesting gadgets from a futuristic world, with clever, witty, crisp dialogue and odes to the past world, now deemed irrelevant.<\/p>\n

Amusing are the scenes when scientists explain that natural foods and products, once thought to be healthy and natural, are not so much.<\/p>\n

This makes the world Miles is used to seem silly and superfluous to them.<\/p>\n

I also enjoyed the physical humor in the film, such as when Miles (as his robotic persona) serves dinner to a sophisticated group of Luna’s friends, accidentally destroying their expensive outerwear in a garbage incinerator and botching dinner.<\/p>\n

As all of the attendees are high on hallucinogenic drugs (including Miles), they fail to realize that he is a human being- they dance with glee and stumble around in a haze, largely unaware of their surroundings.<\/p>\n

This is one of the best scenes in the film.<\/p>\n

The plot itself is fairly predictable, though, and almost forced. Miles and Luna are the couples we root for in the film, the introduction of a handsome rebel leader, Erno Windt (John Beck) doesn’t stand a chance and is somewhat of a foil for them.<\/p>\n

Much of the time, the pair is on the run and sparring. The actors involved have wonderful chemistry with each other, but the central story is not the film’s strongest suit; rather, the weird and unique gadgets and intricacies are.<\/p>\n

Albeit an introduction for anyone intrigued by the comic genius that is Woody Allen, other polished Allen gems are a better start than this early offering, but that is not to say Sleeper (1973) is not a good, entertaining film, with imagination, merely that it lacks all of the elements to rank it among other Woody Allen greats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sleeper-1973 Director Woody Allen Starring Woody Allen, Diane Keaton Scott’s Review #631 Reviewed April 5, 2017 Grade: B One of the earliest of Woody Allen’s enormous list of films that he both directed and starred in, 1973’s Sleeper is a comedic, science-fiction film, and a blueprint for future Allen masterpieces, such as Manhattan (1979) and … Continue reading Sleeper-1973<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,9054,49,495,9595,9594,103,302],"tags":[68,9059,252,498,9597,9596,105,303],"class_list":["post-6045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1973-films","category-charles-gray","category-comedies","category-diane-keaton","category-jackie-mason","category-john-beck","category-scifi","category-woody-allen-films","tag-1973-movie-reviews","tag-charles-gray","tag-comedies","tag-diane-keaton","tag-jackie-mason","tag-john-beck","tag-sci-fi-films","tag-woody-allen-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6045"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22679,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6045\/revisions\/22679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}