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'Summer of Sam' stumbles with story
By Tracy Reynolds
Summer Forty
Niner
It’s the summer
of 1977 in New York City. The days are sweltering, and the steamy nights
infuse citizens with a sense of unrest. Disco is at its peak, the cocaine
craze is in full swing, and punk rock is beginning to show its bizarre
face on the street scene. Blackouts are common place from power failures,
and Reggie Jackson is beginning to make things sizzle for the Yankees.
It is also the summer
a serial killer, calling himself the Son of Sam, begins murdering unsuspecting
couples in parked cars.
Spike Lee’s “Summer
of Sam” depicts the tabloid madness that gripped New York during the terror
of the .44-caliber murderer’s reign. The intense collage of images that
bombard the audience compels an empathy that draws one into this era of
chaos.
However, “Summer
of Sam” is less about the exploits of homicidal David Berkowitz than it
is a drama about a Bronx neighborhood under pressure. If Lee can be faulted,
it would be because he spends far too much time recounting the mundane
and not enough time examining the historical data surrounding the murders.
The movie starts
with an introduction by Jimmy Breslin, the former New York City news columnist
to whom the Berkowitz addressed taunting letters. He leads the audience
into the past -- sleazy, violent and paranoid. A Bronx neighborhood begins
to unravel.
John Leguizamo plays
Vinny, a newly wed hair dresser. Vinny twirls on the dance floor with his
beautiful wife, Dionna (Mira Sorvino), by night and philanders with his
clients by day. While in the throws of an illicit sexual encounter with
Dionna’s cousin, Vinny narrowly escapes becoming the Berkowitz’s seventh
victim.
Lee has been accused
of exploiting the crimes of David Berkowitz, who killed six people and
wounded six others, in an effort to sell movie tickets. However, this is
not true. Conversely, Lee might have had a better film if he had focused
more intently on the Son of Sam rather than the antics of the young and
the restless during a New York crisis. Nonetheless, if one is patient enough
to wade through Lee’s domestic drama, an in-depth depiction of 1977’s
terror in New York might be gleaned.
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