Summer of Sam (1999)

Summer of Sam (5/10)

In the sweltering summer of 1977, New York was terrorised by the serial killer known as Son of Sam. Although the killer and his crimes feature in Summer of Sam, Spike Lee's film is more concerned with the squabbles of a group of young Italian lowlifes and misfits who hang around on street corners, swear a lot and beat each other up.

It is the year of Saturday Night Fever and punk. Philandering hairdresser Vinnie (John Leguizamo) takes his wife Dionna (Mira Sorvino) to the disco, while Ritchie (Adrien Brody) has embraced the punk movement and started wearing spiky hair and affecting an atrocious English accent. They live in a Bronx neighbourhood where, it is thought, the killer might live, and suspicion soon falls on the increasingly estranged Ritchie, whose punk look and lifestyle is making him an outsider.

Certain sequences, such as the killings themselves, are stylishly realised, but the film succeeds or fails by the character studies of Ritchie and Vinnie. Ritchie is an interesting character we can believe in and sympathise with, but the characterisation of Vinnie is utterly tiresome. The character is a louse, sure, but he could have been made an interesting louse, instead of which he bores while he repels. And this is a long film. The characters must also have something to do that interests us and develops the story or relates somehow to the film's themes. I suppose the film was about loyalty and suspicion, but it took an awfully long time to say, well... not a lot really.

It is possible that the film was not properly projected the day I saw it (the BBFC certificate before the film did not have the customary brilliance and clarity I've come to expect from the usually excellent Warner cinemas) but the film seemed poorly photographed, and this dull look added to the feeling of gloom and tackiness the film inspired.

With Summer of Sam's New York setting and its cast of Italian wiseguys, Spike Lee must have known he was inviting comparison with Martin Scorsese. Despite some good performances and some interesting moments, its script ensured that Summer of Sam could never be anything more than a brash but ultimately dull Scorsese pastiche.

-- Gary Jones Homepage: www.bohr.demon.co.uk PGP public key available from servers (DH/DSS key ID: 0x11EAE903)