If you stripped away the comedic elements and rewrote a few scenes, Woody Allen’s classic 1973 film Sleeper would actually make a pretty solid futuristic drama about a man wakened from a long cryo-sleep who ends up becoming part of a revolution against a totalitarian government. Fortunately, the film never even tries to be that serious and you end up laughing your ass off at its near-flawless writing acting and overall pacing. Granted, the film actually won a Hugo Award for “Best Dramatic Presentation” in 1974 (beating out the deadly serious Soylent Green, the mostly serious Westworld and two so-so fan favorite TV melodramas, Genesis II and The Six Million Dollar Man), so I’d gather there’s a pretty solid futuristic drama underneath all that slapstick after all…

Of course, as this is one of Woody’s early efforts before he went towards more diverse and serious blends of comedy and drama, there’s a relentless series of sight gags, in-jokes, pratfalls and more all presented at a near breakneck pace. I’m sure if were still alive at the time this premiered Buster Keaton would probably have broken something from falling out of his chair laughing. Fortunately, there’s an unrelated Keaton in the cast (Diane Keaton) as the perfect foil for Woody’s Mile’s Monroe, a jazz clarinetist and owner an organic food store before he’s put into the deep freeze. Awakened in the 22nd century by a group of rebel scientists who plan to use him as a means to take down a dictator, Miles ends up nearly getting caught when the rebels are raided by the police.

In one of the best bits in the film, he ends up disguised as a robot butler that gets shipped off to Luna Schlosser (Keaton) where he ends up nearly (well, actually) wrecking a party she’s throwing. Miles ends up kidnapping Luna after almost getting his head removed and the initially ticked off elitist ends up falling for the nerdy vegetarian musician, eventually joining the rebel cause (which leads to more slapstick sequences and a few close escapes). The film throws a James Bond’s film worth of gadgets and fun effects at you constantly and for fans of practical over CG work, this one’s a classic. You actually wonder how the hell poor Woody wasn’t maimed or worse in that balloon suit, there’s a wacky food fight with over-sized produce, a “car” chase gone awry and more.

Toss in a cast that’s clearly having a blast with the script,a great and yes, funny as hell score (by Allen) that gives the movie a nice Benny Hill kick in those sped up action scenes and you get one of those movies you’ll watch a few times because you missed something the first time from cracking up so much. Interestingly enough, Sleeper wasn’t Woody’s only dabbling into the fantastic. Ten years after this film, Zelig, a mock documentary about a “human chameleon” with no real personality who could emulate the characteristics of anyone he came close to hit theaters and made for one of the best films of that year as well as contributing some pioneering special effects work onto the scene long before CG rendered films became widely popular. I’ll get to that in another RFoTW, but feel free to double it up with Sleeper and see what I’m talking about…