Sleeper (1973)

Woody Allen's Sleeper is one of the funniest science- fiction movies that I have ever seen before, but it is a movie that I think of considering to be a science fiction movie satire spoofing classics that were made before it such as Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), or maybe the original version of Planet of the Apes (1968). Allen's film tells the story of a nerdish store owner named Miles Monroe (played by Woody Allen) who is going to go on a hospital checkup in the year 1973 (which is coincidentally the same year that this movie was made) and all of the sudden after a huge mistake happens he is awakened 200 years later in the year 2173 and after that he finds out he is in the future and also has become a wanted fugitive as well as being considered an illegal alien and thane after a small getaway from the police he meets up with this untalented poet named Luna (played by Diane Keaton) who end up falling in love with one another. Then Miles gets captured and brainwashed into thinking he is Miss America and it is up to Luna to save him, get rid of their leader's nose, as well as to trick rebels. this movie is funny as can be as well as one of the funniest movies of the 1970s, and it is a very well made movie that not only belongs on a list of the best science fiction movies ever made it also belongs on a list of the best comedic movies ever made.

Few Filmmakers have such a Distinct and Separate Period Style as Woody Allen. His Early Movies were Mostly Slapstick and One Liners, a sort of Classic Comedians Repertoire. In this One the Nods to the Silent Comics are Prevalent, a lot of Sleeper Plays Out Without Dialog and is Physical Mayhem. There are also Many Verbal Stabs at Society with Stinging Slaps at Pop Culture, Religion, and Politics.This, it could be Said, is Woody before He became a Self-Absorbed Manhattanite Obsessed with Interpersonal Philosophical Paradoxes. It was Allens "Funny" Period and this is Outstanding Stuff. The Film Looks Incredible, even Today, as a Vision of the Future with its Believable Futuristic Cars, Buildings, and Robots. With a Distinct Division between Early Woody and Later Woody the Beginning of the Writer/Director's Output will most likely have a Broader Appeal with its Timeless Slapstick and Goofiness. All of His Early Films are worth a Watch but this may be the Best of them all. It is a Playground for a Fertile Imagination and a Certain Immaturity that has as its Appeal the Kid in all of Us. But Woody would Mature and so would His Films. It is these Early Efforts that have that Universal Appeal that He Lost Somewhat when Things got more Serious.

I knew that film was written by, directed by and starred Woody Allen, I didn't know anything about the concept or the reason for the title, but was definitely interested because of it featuring in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. Basically Miles Monroe (Allen) is a health food store owner and jazz musician who has woken up in the year 2173, he was cryogenically frozen in 1973 unintentionally during a minor surgery, scientists Dr. Melik (Mary Gregory) and Dr. Orva (Bartlett Robinson) who revived him are part of a rebellion. Miles is eventually fully recovered, and because his history and records being destroyed he is an unknown, and therefore the rebels want his help in infiltrating and uncovering a 22nd Century police state plot called the "Aires Project", but before they can make plans the authorities arrest the scientists, with only Miles escaping. He manages to get away undetected disguising himself as one of the many servant robots in a small storage space, to be sent off to a home where one is required, he ends up as a "robot" butler in the house of socialite Luna Schlosser (Diane Keaton), and he only reveals his true identity when she wants to have his head changed. She initially wants to turn Miles over to the authorities, so he kidnaps her and take her on the run with him as they make their way to the location of the Aires Project, slowly they fall in love with each other, but then he is captured and brainwashed to become a happy member of society, while Lunsa joins the rebellion. The rebellion manage to get Miles back and reverse his brainwashing, he remembers all of his past and joins them, but he becomes jealous seeing Luna kissing rebellion member Erno Windt (John Beck), she believes in free love, and in the world sex is done with machines, but they do reconcile. They reach the place where the Aires Project, they find out the dictator that rules the police state was actually killed in a bomb blast ten months ago, all that remains of his body is his nose, the plan is to clone a new body for the leader using the DNA of this nose. Miles and Luna disguise themselves as doctors and manage to sneak unnoticed into the operating and cloning facility where the nose is being held, they steal it and Miles "assassinates" the dictator throwing the nose under a steamroller, and in the end the couple question their future together, Luna thinks people cannot have relationships due to chemical incompatibilities, but he dismisses this, he believes in sex and death, the two embrace. Also starring Marya Small as Dr. Nero, Chris Forbes as Rainer Krebs and Douglas Rain as Evil Computer. Allen gives both a goofy and as usual neurotic performance as the man from the past trying to fit and change the future, Keaton four years before her Oscar winning role in Annie Hall is a great relatively eccentric love interest. There are terrific homages to Sir Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, with fantastic slapstick, and the script is witty as well, it is silly, but in a hilarious way, the highlight is absolutely Allen disguised as a robot with the silver head and his glasses contrasting brilliantly, a wonderfully funny science-fiction comedy. Very good!

Since I've used up all my superlatives to describe Allen's comical genius in my ecstatic review of "Love and Death, I would start this review with a comparison: Woody Allen is the Stanley Kubrick of comedy.Let me explain this. Allen explored as many areas as Kubrick at the dawn of his glorious and so prolific career. He made a political pamphlet like "Paths of Glory", a film set in an oppressive dystopian future like "A Clockwork Orange" and a picaresque war epic à la "Barry Lyndon". Granted "Bananas", "Sleeper" or "Love and Death" don't compete in the same categories than the movies I mentioned, yet they all make speak some significant truths about our own humanity. Kubrick denounced the danger of technology, greed, power, politics, from their dehumanization effect, Allen uses humor to highlight their inner absurdity when put in the same equations than what matters most in life: sex, love, life itself and naturally, death.Allen's intelligence has nothing to envy on Kubrick except it's more appealing in the way it subtly lies underneath the cream-pie humor. And after watching, I mean, experiencing "Sleeper": Woody Allen's take on the Sci-fi genre, I knew that Allen was the greatest comical director of his generation, standing above Mel Brooks, Benny Hill and Monty Python for his unique capability to enthrall us with the simple process of thinking. You could tell that all the "Bananas", "Sleepers" and "Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex" were all leading to a much higher summit of intelligent craziness (or crazy intelligence). And "Sleeper" is only one little step below "Love and Death", which doesn't make it any less enjoyable.So, Woody Allen is Miles Monroe, a jazz clarinetist and sympathetic owner of "Happy Carrot" Health Food shop, subjected to an unwanted cryopreservation, he's awakened 200 years later, in 2173 in the kind of future that would make anyone miss a year like 1973. One hilarious moment involves a scientist who concluded after watching footage of Howard Cosell's TV program that it was used as penal punishment. The laughs go on when Miles is asked to give some insights about such distinguished gentleman as Charles De Gaull, Joseph Stalin and Tchangaitchek, the comments were so funny I was almost disappointed that it didn't include a picture of Hitler. Maybe that was too risky but how about that guest in the socialite party wearing an outfit with a Swastika, that called for a reaction … never mind. Stranded in an unwanted but so existent future, Monroe's comments on his 200-year lethargy provide some of the most delightful pieces of verbal humor. When Diane Keaton, as Luna, a socialite girl, asked him how is it feels to have had 200 years without sex, he specifies "204, if you count my marriage", he also assumes he should be collecting social security at that time, this is how so 70's, he's still hooked up in his mind. But he has to deal with a police state, where not only he's alone, but he's the only one without a biometric record, hence his choice by a group of doctors to join an underground rebellious group and prevent a secret plan known as 'Aries Project'. Allen is an average schmuck who ran a rather purposeless life and gets caught in the middle of a rebellion where he becomes the chosen one. That's the core of most comedies: an ordinary guy in an extraordinary situation, but the Allenian twist changes everything, the guy is more exceptional than any other around him. At a time where sex has become ensured by a convenient machine named orgasmitron, when joints have been replaced by a weird ball with inexplicable sexual effects, when men and women believe in free love, Monroe's all intellectual material is getting shaken up, but resists nonetheless. And after admitting that he didn't believe in God, because it's too distracting, or in science because it's too restricting, he reaffirms his attachment to the only real things that count in life: sex and death, death even has an edge because it's rarely followed by nausea. If the conclusion seems sentimental, it's still the wisest response to the whole non-sense brought-up by the world and the proof that besides comedy, Allen has also a talent to create great romances.And beyond the undeniable 'makes-you-think' merit of the film, it's also an opportunity to enjoy pure Allen's slapstick, something that goes on the same level than the pioneers such as Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin, with a daringness that only he can get way. His catatonic state in the beginning might only inspire some timid chuckles but it goes on and on, until it gets desperately funny. From him trying to pass for a robot in a van full of other robots, trying to disguise as one, but can't do without his trademark glasses, hence Luna's desire to have a 'more aesthetically pleasing' one. Allen's robot-walk and his struggle with a giant pudding with a broom is, no pun intended, the icing on the cake. The rest involves a chase on the air, and on-the-water where he still find the opportunity of a good joke "I hate you", screams a hysterical Luna, "don't get too upset", calmly retorts Monroe. And of course, there's the great reinvention of the banana peel gag, you can see it coming but the way he exploits it only belongs to him. By the way, Allen has unique talent to find the right comical word, the 'banana the size of a canoe' foreshadows some classic "Buick" line (not surprising that comedic screenwriters advises to use words with the sound 'k', for their humorous impact).So between the sleeper over 2 centuries of dehumanization or the slipper over a giant banana peel gag, you have the two polar facets of Woody Allen between which he's able to express his comical talent to its fullest.