To Sleep with Anger

Gideon and his wife Suzie live in South Central Los Angeles (having moved there from the South years ago), where they spend time taking care of their grandson Sunny, as their son Samuel (also referred to as "Babe Brother") and his wife Linda each work during the day.

One day, Harry, a longstanding friend from the South whom they have not seen for many years, makes a surprise visit. The couple are delighted to see him and insist that he stay with them for as long as he wishes. Harry has a charming, down-home manner, but his enigmatic and somewhat amoral presence brings to a crisis trouble simmering in the family—especially as regards the younger son, Samuel or "Babe Brother", and his relationships with his parents, wife and older brother, Junior.

Harry's presence threatens to break up Samuel's marriage and seems to be related to an illness Gideon develops over the course of three weeks. On a stormy night, the clash between the two brothers when Samuel merely sits while the others tend to Gideon erupts in full; the result of their clash results in Suzie getting accidentally slashed in the hand that requires a visit to the hospital.

Seemingly, the internal struggle that Samuel went through seem to wash away. The illness to Gideon proves ultimately purgative, though Harry's precise role remains ambiguous. Harry, in the midst of getting his things, slips on marbles that were accidentally dropped by Sunny and suffers a heart attack that leaves him dead on the kitchen floor for days.

{{cast listing|

• Danny Glover as Harry
• Paul Butler as Gideon
• Mary Alice as Suzie
• Carl Lumbly as Junior
• Vonetta McGee as Pat
• Richard Brooks as Babe Brother
• Sheryl Lee Ralph as Linda
• DeVaughn Nixon as Sunny
• Reina King as Rhonda
• Cory Curtis as Skip
• Paula Bellamy as Mrs. Baker
• Wonderful Smith as Preacher
• Ethel Ayler as Hattie
• Beverly Mickins as Neighbor
• Jimmy Witherspoon as Percy
• Julius Harris as Herman

}}

The genesis of the film came from director Charles Burnett's failure to make a film for PBS about a young girl killed by ironic events, believing that "Thinking that it’s not real, so if [PBS] had any kind of input it wouldn’t be so tragic. I started to write it, and sent them different stages of it. And they brought in the same people, wanting to make it into their movie. The things that were cultural or specific about it, they wanted to take out. They wanted to make it “for the mainstream, so that everyone can understand it.” I said “that’s not the story; the story has to do with folklore, and the Black experience.” So we got into this huge argument again. So what the Corporation for Public Broadcasting—CPB—did was: they’d pay you after they approved a draft. You’d get involved with them, you’d get dependent on that check coming in, and they’d keep quizzing you on those changes. “Have you made those changes?” And you’d realize that the moment you made those changes, the check would come in the mail. Otherwise, you don’t get it. They don’t say it that way, but it comes out that way. So that became very difficult, and finally I said “I can’t make the changes that you want me to make; it’s not about that.” So we parted company, and they wrote a really nasty letter saying that I’m not a writer, and things like that. It was really awful! Then, this guy Cotty Chubb—he had been a friend of Michael Tolkin, who did The Player—called me out of the blue and said, “I hear you might be working on something; I’d like to see what you’re doing; I’m a producer.” I said “I have this script that no one wants,” and he said, “Bring it down.” So I dropped it off in his office." By the end of the movie, it had twelve producers behind it.https://www.filmcomment.com/article/school-of-hard-knocks-charles-burnett-interview/

The film has received critical acclaim.{{cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/the-front-row-to-sleep-with-anger |date=February 10, 2016 |last=Brody |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Brody |title=The Front Row: "To Sleep with Anger" |magazine=The New Yorker}} On Rotten Tomatoes, To Sleep with Anger holds a rating of 94% from 35 reviews, with an average score of 7.60/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "To Sleep with Anger examines cultural tensions with a deft hand and a potent blend of comedy and drama, stirred skillfully to life by a strong cast led by Danny Glover."{{cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/to_sleep_with_anger|title=To Sleep With Anger (1990)|website=Rotten Tomatoes |date=June 3, 2025}}

Chuck Bowen of Slant Magazine called it a "neglected masterpiece of African-American cinema."{{Cite web|url=https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/to-sleep-with-anger|title= Film Review: To Sleep with Anger|date=2016-09-06|last=Bowen|first=Chuck|website=Slant Magazine|language=en|access-date=27 December 2018}} IndieWire's Brandon Wilson has called it Burnett's "other masterpiece," as well as numerous other favorable comparisons to Killer of Sheep, saying "Like all great art, To Sleep With Anger triumphs because it works both on a personal level... and it is provocative enough thematically to fuel hours of discussion about tradition versus modernity and how it has affected African-Americans, for better or worse... [Burnett]'s asking us to think about the generation gap, Christian faith versus backwoods mysticism, the grip of the past versus the pull of the present, African-American yearning for financial prosperity versus our sense of altruism & duty and complications within both sides of each coin."{{Cite web|url=https://www.indiewire.com/2014/08/charles-burnetts-other-masterpiece-to-sleep-with-anger-235516/|title=Charles Burnett's Other Masterpiece 'To Sleep With Anger'|last=Wilson|first=Brandon|date=13 August 2014|website=IndieWire|language=en|access-date=27 December 2018}}

Roger Ebert, however, called it "too long" in a mixed review.{{Cite web|url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/to-sleep-with-anger-1990|title=To Sleep With Anger Movie Review (1990)|date= October 26, 1990 |last=Ebert|first=Roger|author-link=Roger Ebert|website=RogerEbert.com|language=en|access-date=27 December 2018}} Entertainment Weekly's Owen Glieberman called it "too ambitious" and said it "never finds a mood".{{Cite web |last=Gleiberman |first=Owen |author-link=Owen Gleiberman |date=1990-11-09 |title=To Sleep With Anger |url=https://ew.com/article/1990/11/09/sleep-anger/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170206112556/https://ew.com/article/1990/11/09/sleep-anger/ |archive-date=2017-02-06 |access-date=27 December 2018 |website=EW.com |language=en}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{IMDb title|0100791}}
• {{Mojo title|tosleepwithanger}}
• {{Rotten Tomatoes|to_sleep_with_anger}}
• [https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6216-to-sleep-with-anger-you-never-know-what-s-in-the-heart To Sleep with Anger: You Never Know What’s in the Heart] an essay by Ashley Clark at the Criterion Collection

{{Charles Burnett}}

Category:1990 films

Category:1990 black comedy films

Category:1990 comedy-drama films

Category:1990 independent films

Category:African-American comedy-drama films

Category:American black comedy films

Category:American independent films

Category:1990s English-language films

Category:Films directed by Charles Burnett (director)

Category:Films scored by Stephen James Taylor

Category:Films set in Los Angeles

Category:Films shot in Los Angeles

Category:United States National Film Registry films

Category:1990s American films

Category:Sundance Film Festival award–winning films

Category:English-language black comedy films

Category:English-language independent films