SUMMER OF SAM (director/writer: Spike Lee; screenwriters:Victor Colicchio /Michael Imperioli; cinematographer: Ellen Kuras; cast: John Leguizamo (Vinny), Adrien Brody (Ritchie), Mira Sorvino (Dionna), Jennifer Esposito (Ruby), Michael Rispoli (Joey T), Bebe Neuwirth (Gloria), Patti LuPone (Helen), Mike Starr (Eddie), Anthony LaPaglia (Detective Lou Petrocelli), Roger Guenveur Smith (Detective Curt Atwater), Ben Gazarra (Luigi, mafia kingpin), Jimmy Breslin (himself), Michael Badalucco (Son of Sam), Spike Lee (John Jeffries), John Turturro (voice of Harvey the Black Dog), 1999)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Spike Lee's take on the the summer of 1977 in New York City, a time when a serial killer was on the loose, causing a panic by killing couples in lovers lane. The film has its rewarding moments to counter its muddled attempt to cover what actually happened. David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam, was eventually apprehended due to a parking ticket that was traced to him.
But Spike is not that concerned with the serial killer, his perspective of the event is how it influenced an Italian Bronx neighborhood, bringing out its paranoia. The most interesting character in the film is not David Berkowitz, but Vinny (Leguizamo) from the Bronx, a hairdresser, someone of a working-class mentality and someone who is possessed with a weak character. He is also someone who has adapted to his neighborhood's provincial attitudes, trusting only Italians who think like he does. It is through his tortured eyes that the viewer sees how a lynch mob mentality unfolds in a neighborhood, how sexually repressed the Catholic is, and how God is seen as someone who will make you pay for your sins. Vinny's sins are due to his repressions, refusing to have oral sex with his wife because his wife shouldn't do such things. He has oral sex on his extra-marital affairs, which is his excuse for having the affairs. He was almost the target of the serial killer on the night he made it with his wife's cousin and is now guilt-ridden and thinks he has to change his ways, that God gave him one more chance by sparing his life in favor of the other couple that was killed that night.
It was at times a film that bordered on greatness, but then for long stretches turned back into a mess, filled with untenable stereotypes of the Italians, while losing track of its story about the psycho ..44-Caliber Killer. It suffered from being too long (142 minutes), from failing to say anything relevant about the Son of Sam, and from being too ambitious. Son of Sam was unintentionally portrayed in a comic manner as he was madly talking to a barking black dog named Harvey, suffering from fits of ranting to himself, and hearing delusionary voices. Michael Badalucco's characterization added nothing to the story except disappointment that his character wasn't even attempted to be explored. He was a caricature; we know nothing more about him from this film than the New Yorkers did from the police sketches of him placed in the newspapers to identify him.
Summer of Sam concentrates its energy on two young Italian-American couples from the Bronx. The first couple is married for two years: Dionna (Mira) is a waitress in her father's Italian restaurant; Vinny is her philandering husband, who can't stop himself from cheating on her. They both share a love for disco and the night-life. The second couple is made up of two lost souls who don't quite fit into the neighborhood but haven't been able to get away from the neighborhood. Ritchie (Brody) has just returned from England to live with his mother (Patti LuPone) and new step-father (Mike Starr), who upset him greatly by kicking him out of the house to live in the garage. He has returned with an affective accent imitative of the Sex Pistols, with spiked hair, and wearing a dog collar. The local girl he befriends is named Ruby (Jennifer Esposito), better known on the street as Ruby the Skank. She joins Ritchie into forming a punk-rock duo--providing a contrast to the disco marriage of Dionna and Vinny's. Ritchie also has a secret life as a male performer in a gay theater on 42nd St. known as Male World and turning gay tricks to get some money to buy an expensive guitar. When this news hits the neighborhood, it is too much for the locals to handle, even his best friend Vinny turns against him. All the male leads seem to lead inexplicable double lives.
The film derives its verve from the Daily News headlines of the mounting number of couples killed by the serial killer that summer. We hear Phil Rizzuto covering the Yankee championship baseball season on radio and the team's star, Reggie Jackson, is amusingly connected by one of the neighborhood boys to the killings because his uniform number is 44. Jimmy Breslin fills us in on the Daily News coverage, where he was a reporter at that time, even receiving a letter from Son of Sam. Spike acts as a black TV reporter who is pleasing to the white audience (in a performance that proves he has no ability as an actor). There is a Con Ed blackout in the record hot summer days of July, which causes looting in Harlem, while in contrast, the local mafia chiefs keep the white neighborhood looter-free.
Much like in Fritz Lang's M, as the police are baffled by the killer and go to the underworld to get help, here they will go to Luigi (Gazzara), who is the local mafia chief. He puts up a reward to get the killer and then puts together a list of those he suspects might be the pervert. Added to the mix of those on the look out for the Son of Sam, are the local Italian wiseguys, who hang out by a sign that says Dead-End. Joey T (Rispoli) is the tough leader of this group, a low-level drug dealer who has a daughter and tries to keep his neighborhood free of social undesirables, yet is completely unconscious that what he is doing is paradoxical. Vinny and Ritchie are part of the group as youngsters growing up, but trouble arises when the group suspects Ritchie of changing so much that he could be the Son of Sam. Meanwhile, Vinny's life seems to be unraveling and he is too confused and drugged up to understand what is going on. It seems as if he in a clash over pop-cultures (disco and punk) with his best friend Ritchie.
It's a messy film, moving in many different directions, but it is filled with ideas and is always engaging. The lead performers Leguizamo, Brody, Esposito, Sorvino, and Rispoli give crisp performances. Leguizamo's performance is special in a visceral way, it exposes his double-standard life and his lowlife mindset, his rage is what the film keys in on. The film doesn't really come to a climax or say anything new about society at large, but it has an excitement of its own that is grandiose. That's about as complimentary as I can get about a film that should be praised more than it should be lambasted for its faults. It should be praised for showing how scared people are of those who are different and how they need to blame someone for what they don't understand. The scene near the end of the film was particularly violent and revolting, giving the film the jolt it needed to make its case about those who are narrow minded.
This was not a film, after all, about the killer, its victims, or about the summer of 1977, it was a film about those who were victimized because they are made into scapegoats for someone else's problems that they can't face themselves. It is a film about urban white people of Italian origin: their fears, their angers, their prejudices, their repressions, and their eroticisms. Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing) keeps the African-American view to the summer of 1977 down to the bare minimum. He shows the killings of Son of Sam in their gruesome aspects, but that is not the only horror going on in the city, therefore little is made of the serial killings. It almost seems as if the story about the Son of Sam was not even needed. This was a film almost exclusively about an Italian neighborhood and their xenophobia, and it could have taking place in any year after 1950.
REVIEWED ON 3/4/2000 GRADE: B-
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
ozus@sover.net
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews