Sleeper (1973)

Sleeper
Directed by Woody Allen
Written by Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman
1973/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/My DVD collection
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Miles Monroe: My brain? It’s my second favorite organ!

One of the last of Woody Allen’s silly movies, this combines slapstick humor, random gags, and satire.  It’s pretty funny and we find out that Mid-20th Century Modern architecture still convinces as futuristic in 2173.

Miles Munroe (Allen) was a clarinetist and health food store owner way back in 1973. Complications of a minor surgery cause his body to be cryogenically frozen.  He is illegally thawed out in 2173 by scientists who want to use him to help revolutionaries in the Underground infiltrate the secret Aires project.  The above ground society is ruled by a Great Leader and questions nothing.  The conformists are also frigid and have sex with the help of an orgasmatron machine.

Miles undergoes many obstacles on his way to Aries project disguised as a robot.  First he shows up at the door of Luna Schlosser (Diane Keaton), a conformist and very bad poet.  She is terrified but eventually helps him.

En route Luna becomes a member of the underground and convinces a very reluctant Miles to become involved in revolution.

This movie is one gag after another – if one doesn’t make you laugh, the next probably will.  We see Allen taking on increasingly sophisticated projects from a production point of view and this looks pretty fabulous. Recommended for those looking for a good time.  Allen wrote the Dixieland jazz score.

This concludes my viewing for 1973. I finally got my hands on a Sleeper DVD I could play on my player the very last day!