Editing Summer of Sam (section)

==Reception==
''Summer of Sam'' premiered at the [[Cannes Film Festival]] on May 20, 1999, and was released in the United States on July 2.<ref name = BOM /><ref>{{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/21/movies/critic-s-notebook-fascinating-features-sidelines-outsparkle-main-event-cannes.html|title = CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK; Fascinating Features on Sidelines Outsparkle Main Event at Cannes|last = Maslin|first = Janet|date = May 21, 1999|access-date = June 25, 2019|author-link = Janet Maslin|work = [[The New York Times]]|archive-date = September 10, 2020|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200910195102/https://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/21/movies/critic-s-notebook-fascinating-features-sidelines-outsparkle-main-event-cannes.html|url-status = live}}</ref> It received mixed reviews from critics.<ref>{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia Britannica|page=237|year=2002|isbn=0852297874|volume=7|edition=15th}}</ref> The film has an approval rating of 50% at [[Rotten Tomatoes]] based on 104 reviews, with a [[weighted arithmetic mean|weighted average]] of 5.50/10. The site's consensus states: "Spike Lee offers intense visuals but his storytelling feels crowded and overambitious".<ref>{{rotten-tomatoes|summer_of_sam|Summer of Sam}} Retrieved February 15, 2023</ref> On [[Metacritic]], the film has a score of 67 out of 100 based on reviews from 26 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".<ref>{{Metacritic film|title=Summer of Sam}} Retrieved June 29, 2019</ref> Audiences surveyed by [[CinemaScore]] gave the film a grade D− on scale of A to F.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.cinemascore.com/publicsearch/index/title/ |title= SUMMER OF SAM (1999) D- |work= [[CinemaScore]] |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20181220122629/https://www.cinemascore.com/publicsearch/index/title/ |archive-date= 2018-12-20 }}</ref>

[[Kenneth Turan]] of the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' stated "Lee is a powerful filmmaker who certainly knows how to have an impact on an audience, but those who survive his ministrations are likely to wonder if in this case the battle was worth the bruises".<ref>{{cite web |last=Turan |first=Kenneth |date=July 2, 1999 |title='Summer,' and Livin' Ain't Easy |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-jul-02-ca-52140-story.html |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |access-date=December 30, 2023 |archive-date=December 30, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231230162527/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-jul-02-ca-52140-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Todd McCarthy]] of ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' gave a positive review, writing the film "is the closest Lee has yet come to [[Martin Scorsese|Scorsese]] territory."<ref>{{Cite magazine |url=https://variety.com/1999/film/reviews/summer-of-sam-1117499796/ |title=Summer of Sam |date=May 21, 1999 |magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |last=McCarthy |first=Todd |author-link=Todd McCarthy |access-date=December 30, 2023 |archive-date=December 30, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231230162528/https://variety.com/1999/film/reviews/summer-of-sam-1117499796/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In the ''[[Chicago Sun-Times]]'', [[Roger Ebert]] gave it three-and-a-half out of four stars and regarded the screenplay as more of "an analytical outsider's view" of provincial [[scapegoating]] rather than "the inside, autobiographical job of a Martin Scorsese film".<ref name=":0" /> He added ''Summer of Sam'' "vibrates with fear, guilt and lust", and that the film is "not about the killer, but about his victims—not those he murdered, but those whose overheated imaginations bloomed into a lynch [[Herd mentality|mob mentality]]. There is a sequence near the end of the film that shows a side of human nature as ugly as it is familiar: the fever to find someone to blame and the need to blame someone who is different."<ref name=":0">{{cite news|last=Ebert|first=Roger|author-link=Roger Ebert|date=July 2, 1999|url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/summer-of-sam-1999|title=Summer of Sam|newspaper=[[Chicago Sun-Times]]|access-date=September 6, 2018|archive-date=September 6, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180906124857/https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/summer-of-sam-1999|url-status=live}}</ref>

According to film academic R. Barton Palmer in 2011, ''Summer of Sam'' continues to be widely viewed as Spike Lee's most controversial film, "issuing a cynical appeal to trashy tastes", which has "prevented some critics from according it more than cursory consideration". Many critics objected to its handling of sexual themes, its pervasive street language, and "what some saw as [Lee's] bitterly negative and even defamatory representations of white ethnic culture".<ref>{{cite book|page=54|last=Palmer|first=R. Barton|year=2011|editor-last=Conard|editor-first=Mark|title=The Philosophy of Spike Lee|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|isbn=978-0813133812|chapter=Monsters and Moralism in ''Summer of Sam''}}</ref>