Kevin Bacon is one of the rare breed of actors who seems utterly at home playing everything from the most repellent characters in film and television history, right through to the best and most heroic men you can imagine. Guess which one this is? Sean Nokes is a senior guard at the Wilkinson Home For Boys, and the man in charge of the floor that the teenaged protagonists of Sleepers find themselves incarcerated on, following their conviction in 1967 over a prank that nearly killed a man. Together with three other guards, Nokes is a serial abuser of the young inmates of the home: humiliating, beating and raping them on a regular basis for years. While the boys find a way to ensure their bloody revenge some fourteen years later, and while hes by no means alone in his crimes (and is even the first to be punished) its still Bacons performance that the film is best remembered for. By turns sneering a-hole, creepy pervert and nasty, self-justifying jerk, at first Nokes doesnt even remember the kids when they confront him as adults then nonchalantly asks how theyve been, and finally claims that he did it to toughen them up. Its not remotely enough to save him: in the home, with all the authority in the world and no accountability Nokes was king of the hill, but in the big wide world hes just an unrepentant scumbag who finally gets whats coming to him.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
