"Sleepers" (1996) is a true story. Or maybe it's pure fiction. It all depends on who you believe. Author Lorenzo Carcaterra insists that the events depicted in his novel and on screen really happened to him and his three best friends; the New York Youth Correctional Authorities and the Manhattan DA's office claim it's a bunch of hooey. True or not, there's no arguing that "Sleepers" is one powerful movie.

Our story begins in 1966, when our 12-year-old heroes, Lorenzo "Shakes" Carcaterra (Joe Perrino) and his inseparable pals John (Geoffrey Wigdor), Tommy (Jonathan Tucker) and Michael (Brad Renfro) are still innocent boys growing up in Hell's Kitchen, New York. It's a poor, tough neighborhood, but the guys don't feel deprived. They have their stickball, jobs working for local good-guy mob boss King Benny (Vittorio Gassman), and most of all, they have each other.

Like most kids, they're prone to a bit of mischief now and then. Thanks to the influence of Father Bobby (Robert DeNiro), an honest and caring man, they've managed to stay out of real trouble -- until a stupid prank takes a tragic turn. Property is destroyed, a man is left fighting for his life, and the boys wind up with year-long sentences at the Wilkinson Home for Boys, where unspeakable horrors await them.

From the outside, Wilkinson looks respectable. There's rot behind the tidy fa?ade, though, in the form of the sadistic Sean Nokes (Kevin Bacon). Nokes is the ringleader of a small group of guards who delight in beating and raping Shakes, Michael, Tom, and John on a regular basis. The boys are perfect prey; too small to fight back and too scared and humiliated to tell anyone what's going on.

Thirteen years after their release, Shakes (now played by Jason Patric) is a struggling journalist. Michael (Brad Pitt) is a lowly lawyer in the Manhattan DA's office. They're not ambitious; they just move through each day, haunted by the past. John (Ron Eldard) and Tommy (Billy Crudup, in his film debut) suffered the most. They are both alcoholics, drug addicts, and hard-core criminals.

Although the four men keep in touch, they never discuss what happened at Wilkinson -- until a chance encounter with the notorious Nokes sets a chain of events in motion that culminate in the sweetest kind of revenge.

Carcaterra admitted that he altered names, dates, and places to protect innocent people, but that the abuse (and the ultimate trial) really took place. He refuses to discuss it anymore, so I guess we'll never know. One thing's for sure. The movie version of "Sleepers" is excellent. Director and screenwriter Barry Levinson keeps things moving at such a brisk pace you barely notice the movie is 2 1/2 hours long, even though you have to flip the DVD over halfway through. There isn't a weak performance in the bunch, either. Loved the four adult leads (especially Eldard) and the kids who played them (sadly, Brad Renfro overdosed earlier this year at the age of 25). Minnie Driver is quite good as the devoted Carol, Gassman is a hoot as King Benny (loved his scene with Little Caesar), and Dustin Hoffman was robbed of an Oscar nomination for his performance as decaying defense attorney Danny Snyder.

You can find "Sleepers" (rated R for violence and language) at Hastings. Check it out!