Great Character: Miles Monroe (“Sleeper”)
The Great Character theme in August is FOOW (Fish-Out-Of-Water). Today’s guest post by Jason Cuthbert features Miles Monroe from the 1973 comedy Sleeper written by Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman.
After Diane Keaton and Woody Allen starred in Herbert Ross’s Play it Again, Sam written by Woody himself, they shared the screen for the first time under Woody’s directorial prowess as the futurist socialite poet Luna Schlosser and the scientifically-preserved “fish out of water” jazz player Miles Monroe respectively in Sleeper. Woody Allen shared a Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen nomination from the Writer’s Guild of America with co-writer Marshall Brickman with this madcap satirical science fiction parody, complete with costumes designed by a young pre-director Joel Schumacher (St. Elmo’s Fire, The Lost Boys). Through Woody’s iconic dark-rimmed glasses, the future as we would assume to know it would never look quite the same again.
Sleeper plot summary from IMDB:
A nerdish store owner is revived out of cryostasis into a future world to fight an oppressive government.
Not only does Miles Monroe not belong in the bizarre district that he wakes up in, far from his grand old New York City streets, but he doesn’t even belong in the century that has advanced 200 years ahead of his last waking moment. The initial shock of this realization understandably blows his mind. Let the panic attacks commence.
MILES MONROE: I don’t know what the hell I’m doing here. I’m 237 years old; I should be collecting social security.
We get an early version of the lovable, frenzied neurotic Woody characterization, let loose in sci-fi scenery that still keeps Mile’s memories of his original era of 1973 alive and conflicting with his current reality.
LINA SCHLOSSER: It’s hard to believe that you haven’t had sex for 200 years.
MILES MONROE: 204, if you count my marriage.
One of the great comedic devices that is unleashed in Sleeper is the fun that screenwriter’s Allen and Brickman must have had playing God with their assumed advances in technology. Janitors and waitresses beware — there are robot butlers in 2173. Let’s not forget about the mechanical version of “man’s best friend.”
MILES MONROE: [about his robotic dog] Is he housebroken or is he going to leave batteries all over the floor?
Miles Monroe soon learns that mankind has found a way to not only grow more food but to super size food portions to the point that you may need to be bench-pressing heavy weights prior to lifting your favorite fruits and vegetables.
MILES MONROE: My God! I beat a man insensible with a strawberry!
As Miles maneuver’s through Woody’s World with an agenda to bring down a dictator’s plot called he “Aires Project,” he initially must mask himself as one of those robotic servants that lighten the workload in modern-modern-modern times. While working a private party in full robotic garb, Miles get’s to partake in a little bit of “high-minded” intoxication by holding a gray orb that seems to possess the euphoric properties of designer drugs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAKWKfVcd04
When Miles isn’t reacting to the shock of intimate sexual intercourse being reduced to an ultra brief artificial romp in an orgasmic chamber, he gets to travel by land, sea and air thanks to the brilliantly humorous minds behind the “Hydrovac.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKr5LKsn428
For the wonderfully wacky set pieces that he finds himself forced to adapt to, his Woody wit and charm in an unfrozen physical form and his creative escapes in the face of admitted complete cowardice — Miles Monroe is a hilariously GREAT CHARACTER.
I saw Sleeper for the first time in college when it came out, a double feature with the Marx Brothers’ Duck Soup, followed the next night by Bananas coupled with the Marx Brothers’ Cocoanuts. It was my initiation into Woody Allen movies and seeing both films alongside the slapstick and verbal jousting of Groucho, Chico and Harpo [sans dialogue] was inspired, Allen clearly inspired by the comedic trio.
And what better way to create a Fish Out Of Water scenario than by sticking a person hundreds of years in the future?
Thanks, Jason, for another post in the Great Character series. If you’re a fan of Woody Allen, especially his early movies, join us in Comments for further discussion.