Product Details

• Actors: Willem Dafoe, Susan Sarandon, Dana Delany, David Clennon, Mary Beth Hurt
• Directors: Paul Schrader
• Writers: Paul Schrader
• Producers: G. Mac Brown, Linda Reisman, Mario Kassar, Ronna B. Wallace
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Lions Gate
• DVD Release Date: March 26, 2002
• Run Time: 103 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005Y6XB
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #34,581 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Light Sleeper" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This compelling 1992 drama is often cited as the third film in writer-director Paul Schrader's trilogy of "nocturnal alienation" that includes Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (which Schrader wrote) and American Gigolo. Like those other films, this one deals with a solitary man who works almost exclusively at night, and the film immerses us in the rhythms and psychology of his lifestyle. In this case, Willem Dafoe plays a cocaine addict who has kicked the habit that almost killed him, but still delivers drugs to clients for a dealer (Susan Sarandon) who dreams of opening a legitimate cosmetics business. He meets an old lover (Dana Delany) who fears he will draw her into their old life of drug abuse, but that proves to be the least of their worries. Simultaneously sad, funny, and fascinating, the film inevitably leads to the outburst of violence that has become a kind of signature in Schrader's work. It lacks the visceral impact of Taxi Driver, but few directors can match Schrader's gift for creating fully realized characters on the fringes of a society to which they don't quite belong. Insomnia, in Schrader's world, is a condition suffered by those whose dreams remain elusive, just beyond their grasp. --Jeff Shannon

Product Description

Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 09/05/2006 Run time: 103 minutes Rating: R

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Humane, July 14, 2003

By	Diff D (York, PA United States) - See all my reviews

Unusual in the usual world of American movie theater. Thought provoking and very consequential, certainly not unpredictable but somehow enriching and very humane. The characters of drug dealers turn out to be very likeable and egzistential.
There are many weaknesses in this plot - violent end seems to be repeating "Taxi Driver" in a sort of casual "Crime And Punishment" way, nevertheless it is very simplistic. Drug dealer is apparently more in a character of Paul Schreader than a realistic immersion into the psyche of a drug dealer. The main character narates too much as if we have a problem to understand his actions, unnecessary in my view. And there is a genuine bad guy as if to create the vent for the eventual explosion at the end. He is reduced to inhumanity perhaps to underline the humanity of others that some of us would have trouble accepting. All in all few weak places and yet because these types of intelligent movies are so rare, it is so much beyond the typical Holywood entertainment sewer. All the actors are doing great work as expected.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Perennial, June 10, 2003

By	Greekfreak (Pusan Korea (South)) - See all my reviews

I can watch this film at the drop of a hat and not mind that I've seen it a million times. It's not my favourite film, and I have more than a few criticisms of it, but overall, it's one that I'm glad I own.

The acting is fine--Susan Sarandon and Willem Dafoe always are--and Dany Delany does a credible job, but the real star is the screenplay, which was written by the director Paul Schrader. It's endlessly quotable, realistic, funny, and at times thought-provoking.

The soundtrack is marred by having the same no-name singer (who's trying so desperately to ape Bryan Ferry) all throughout--and I thought Vonda Sheppard was lousy--but the incidental music is nice.

Completely overlooked, and well worth the rental.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Willem Dafoe: Major Romantic & Erotic Dream Figure, May 20, 2001

By	carol irvin "c.k. irvin" (United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Light Sleeper (DVD)

Writer-director Paul Schrader delivers his most satisfying film for me. He is even better known for his work when he solely screenwriters, such as for his unsurpassed "Taxi Driver," directed by his frequent collaborator, Marty Scorsese. For his own solo film though, this is my favorite. Schrader's film work is frequently compared to the late Robert Bresson's films. However, Bresson has always been a little too painterly for me. Schrader is painterly enough and to make it any more so evokes that dreaded word in film: slow. I frankly prefer this film to the Bresson films I've seen, which makes me a film heretic I realize. Urban alienation is at the core of this film, which is true of all Schrader's work, and Willem Dafoe plays a nocturnal drug dealer who doesn't get much sleep (hence the title), probably because his dreams remain so elusive from his grasp, as a metaphor for the overall film. Two women present the immediate conflict in the film. Susan Sarandon plays a drug dealer who Dafoe works for and she tells him that they both need to get out of dealing. She plans to open a legitimate cosmetics business and seems capable of following through on the idea. She is the most in control of her life of the three main characters. Dana Delany plays Dafoe's former lover, who doesn't want anything to do with him because they were substance abusers together in the past. Although he's clean now, he still deals. But is her character as squeaky clean as she now proclaims to be? Dafoe needs to figure that out. Further tension comes about from the eroticism between Dafoe and Delany plus the growing potential for eroticism between Dafoe and Sarandon. Dafoe is absolutely wonderful in this film and becomes a major romantic and erotic dream figure for the viewer regardless of what the viewer thinks of him vis a vis the two women.