Editing Summer of Sam

{{Short description|1999 US crime-drama film directed by Spike Lee}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2013}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Summer of Sam
| image = Summer Of Sam (movie).jpg
| alt = Newspaper cover pages with red lettering daubed over it
| caption = Theatrical release poster
| director = [[Spike Lee]]
| producer = [[Jon Kilik]] <br />Spike Lee
| writer = [[Victor Colicchio]] <br />[[Michael Imperioli]] <br />Spike Lee
| starring = {{Plainlist|
* [[John Leguizamo]]
* [[Adrien Brody]]
* [[Mira Sorvino]]
* [[Jennifer Esposito]]
* [[Anthony LaPaglia]]
}}
| music = [[Terence Blanchard]]
| editing = [[Barry Alexander Brown]]  
| cinematography = [[Ellen Kuras]]
| studio = [[Touchstone Pictures]]<br />[[40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks]]
| distributor = [[Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures|Buena Vista Pictures Distribution]]
| released = {{Film date|1999|05|20|[[Cannes Film Festival|Cannes]]|1999|07|02|United States}}
| runtime = 142 minutes<!--Theatrical runtime: 142:07--><ref>{{cite web|title=''Summer of Sam'' (18)|url=http://www.bbfc.co.uk/AVF158959 |website=[[British Board of Film Classification]]|access-date=November 15, 2013}}{{dead link|date=April 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>
| country = United States
| language = English<br />Italian
| budget = $22 million
| gross = $19.3 million<ref name = BOM>{{mojo title|summerofsam}}</ref> 
}}

'''''Summer of Sam''''' is a 1999 American [[Crime film|crime]] [[Thriller (genre)|thriller]] film about the 1977 [[David Berkowitz]] (Son of Sam) serial murders and their effect on a group of fictional residents of an [[Italian-American]] neighborhood in [[The Bronx]] in the late 1970s. It focuses on two young men from the neighborhood: Vinny ([[John Leguizamo]]), whose marriage is faltering due to his cheating, and Ritchie ([[Adrien Brody]]), Vinny's childhood friend who has embraced [[punk rock|punk]] fashion and music.

The murder investigation and other contemporary events, such as the [[New York City blackout of 1977]] and the [[New York Yankees]]' [[1977 New York Yankees season|winning season]], provide a backdrop to the stories of Vinny, Ritchie, their families and friends.<ref name=tunzelmann>{{cite news |last=Von Tunzelmann |first=Alex |date=2012-04-26 |title=Summer of Sam is an almost boringly flawless portrait of a real-life monster |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/apr/26/summer-sam-spike-lee |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |access-date=2017-02-19 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20141007190035/http://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/apr/26/summer-sam-spike-lee |archive-date=2014-10-07 |url-status=live}}</ref> The film was directed and co-produced by [[Spike Lee]], who also co-wrote the film with [[Michael Imperioli]] and [[Victor Colicchio]]. The film was a box-office disappointment.

==Plot==
It is the summer of 1977, and New York City lives in fear of the ".44 Caliber Killer", who shoots young women and their male companions. The killer, [[David Berkowitz]], later identifies himself as "Son of Sam" in a note left at a murder scene. Berkowitz lives in a messy apartment, where he is driven crazy by the barking of a neighbor's large black labrador, Harvey, the dog of Sam Carr, and has a vision of the dog directing him to kill.

In an Italian-American neighborhood in the Bronx (likely [[Morris Park, Bronx|Morris Park]], [[Throggs Neck]], or [[Pelham Bay (neighborhood), Bronx|Pelham Bay]]), hairdresser Vinny and his pretty wife Dionna go [[Disco dance|disco dancing]] at a local nightclub, where they meet Dionna's attractive cousin Chiara. Vinny offers to drive Chiara home while Dionna remains at the club. Vinny and Chiara then park on a residential street and have sex in the car. Son of Sam watches them, but when another couple pulls up behind their car, flashing their lights and honking their horn, Vinny and Chiara drive off, embarrassed. After they leave, Son of Sam kills the couple who had parked behind Vinny. When Vinny picks up Dionna back at the club, she notices the smell of vaginal lubrication on his face and realizes he had sex with Chiara but does not let on that she knows.

On the drive home, Vinny notices police near the location where he had parked with Chiara and sees the bodies of the slain couple. The religious and guilty Vinny, realizing he could have been a victim, decides that God spared him in order to give him a chance to reform his ways and stop cheating on his wife. Although Vinny loves Dionna, their sex life is suffering because Vinny enjoys [[anal sex]], [[69 (sex position)|"69"]] and other sex acts that he considers kinky, but which he cannot bring himself to discuss or perform with his wife. He is also having an affair with Gloria, the owner of the hair salon where he works.

The next day, while Vinny is hanging out with neighborhood drug dealer Joey T and his friends, Vinny's old friend Ritchie, who has been away for some time, reappears, sporting a punk spiked hairdo and clothing and affecting a British accent. Vinny, Joey T, and the others dislike the change in Ritchie and he soon finds himself unwelcome in the neighborhood. Ruby, a promiscuous local girl, is attracted to Ritchie and the two begin a relationship. Unlike other men, Ritchie takes an interest in Ruby as a person, not just as a sexual outlet. She learns that he makes money by erotic dancing and prostituting himself at a gay theater but remains loyal to him and begins to dress in punk fashion herself.

As the Son of Sam killings continue, tension rises in the neighborhood. A local police detective asks the local mob boss to help him find the killer; Joey T and his friends also make a list of possible suspects, including Ritchie whom they regard as "a freak". Ritchie and Ruby invite Vinny and Dionna to come see their punk band perform at [[CBGB]], but once there, Dionna feels intimidated by the punk crowd and refuses to go in. Vinny and Dionna instead go to [[Studio 54]], where they are denied entry and finally end up at [[Plato's Retreat]] where they take drugs and participate in an orgy. Vinny becomes upset when he sees Dionna appearing to enjoy the experience of having sex with another man, even though he himself is having sex with other women. He berates Dionna in the car on the way home, resulting in his angered wife revealing that she knows he cheated on her with Chiara. She storms off to stay at her father's house. Vinny begins to drink, uses drugs and makes a scene at Gloria's hair salon, causing her to angrily throw him out and then inform Dionna about their affair. Upon hearing from Gloria, Dionna leaves Vinny for good.

Joey T and his gang decide that the latest witness sketch of Son of Sam released by the police resembles Ritchie and attempt to track him down at CBGB. Joey persuades the unstable Vinny, who is high on drugs he has taken to dull the pain of his impending divorce, to help them lure Ritchie out of his house, since Vinny is the only local friend Ritchie still trusts. Unbeknownst to Vinny and his friends, the police have already arrested David Berkowitz, the real Son of Sam.  Vinny goes to Ritchie's family home, where Ritchie and Ruby are packing up to leave town, and lures Ritchie out on the pretext of talking about his failing marriage. Once Ritchie is outside, Vinny warns Ritchie under his breath to run, but Ritchie does not heed the warning and is attacked and severely beaten by Joey T and his gang. Ritchie's stepfather, Eddie, emerges from the house brandishing his gun and rescues the badly injured Ritchie, telling the attackers that Ritchie is not the Son of Sam and that the TV news is reporting that the police have just arrested the real killer. Unable to face Ritchie, Vinny walks away.

==Cast==
{{Cast listing|
* [[John Leguizamo]] as Vinny
* [[Adrien Brody]] as Ritchie
* [[Mira Sorvino]] as Dionna
* [[Jennifer Esposito]] as Ruby
* [[Michael Rispoli]] as Joey T
* [[Saverio Guerra]] as Woodstock
* [[Brian Tarantina]] as Bobby Del Fiore
* Al Palagonia as Anthony
* Ken Garito as Brian
* [[Bebe Neuwirth]] as Gloria
* [[Patti LuPone]] as Helen
* [[Mike Starr (actor)|Mike Starr]] as Eddie
* [[Anthony LaPaglia]] as Detective Lou Petrocelli
* [[Roger Guenveur Smith]] as Detective Curt Atwater
* [[Ben Gazzara]] as Luigi
* [[Joe Lisi]] as Tony Olives
* James Reno as Crony
* [[Arthur J. Nascarella|Arthur Nascarella]] as Mario
* [[John Savage (actor)|John Savage]] as Simon
* [[Jimmy Breslin]] as himself
* [[Michael Badalucco]] as [[David Berkowitz|David Berkowitz/Son of Sam]]
* [[Spike Lee]] as John Jeffries
* Lucia Grillo as Chiara
* [[Michael Imperioli]] as Midnite
* Christopher Wynkoop as Sam Carr
* [[John Turturro]] as Voice of Harvey the Dog
* [[Kim Director]] as Dee
* [[Michael Sorvino]] as Bowler at Diner
* [[Peter Maloney (actor)|Peter Maloney]] as Detective Timothy Dowd
* [[Joie Lee]] as Interviewed Girl
* [[Phil Rizzuto]] as himself
* [[Reggie Jackson]] as himself
}}

==Production==
Spike Lee spent months trying to convince [[Leonardo DiCaprio]] to take the role of Ritchie. DiCaprio declined the role and Adrien Brody was cast as Ritchie.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://jamshowbiz.com/Cannes99/may21_spike.html|title=Summer of Spike a hot one|date=May 21, 1999|publisher=[[Toronto Sun]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000903084039/http://jamshowbiz.com/Cannes99/may21_spike.html |archive-date=September 3, 2000 }}</ref> Lee later stated the role of Dionna was originally written with [[Jennifer Esposito]] in mind. A cast reshuffle ended with [[Mira Sorvino]] as Dionna and Esposito as Ruby.<ref name=EW>{{cite magazine  | title = Movie Preview: Summer of Sam  |magazine = [[Entertainment Weekly]] | date = April 19, 1999  | url = http://www.ew.com/article/1999/04/19/summer-sam  | access-date = September 21, 2011 | url-status = live  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110623115835/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,87160,00.html |archive-date=2011-06-23}}</ref> Journalist [[Jimmy Breslin]], to whom the real Son of Sam sent letters during the time of the murders, appears as himself introducing and closing the film. [[Phil Rizzuto]] appears in the film as the Yankees' broadcaster and boxer [[Evander Holyfield]] makes a brief appearance as a man in a riot.

The film was largely shot during the summer of 1998 and set in the Italian-American neighborhoods of [[Country Club, Bronx|Country Club]], Morris Park and Throggs Neck sections of the Bronx, with some scenes filmed in [[Brownsville, Brooklyn]]. Although most of the Son of Sam murders actually took place in [[Queens]], the double shooting that Vinny narrowly escapes has been called an accurate depiction of the April 1977 [[David Berkowitz#Crimes continue (April to July 1977)|killing of Alexander Esau and Valentina Suriani]] in the Bronx.<ref name="tunzelmann" /> Marie's Beauty Lounge, the salon where Vinny works, was a real salon on Morris Park Avenue, between Williamsbridge Road and Bronxdale Avenue. The real [[CBGB]] club was also used; the band L.E.S. Stitches shown playing there was a contemporary punk band from New York's [[Lower East Side]].

Adrien Brody's nose was broken during the climactic fight scene in which his character Ritchie is brutally beaten by his friends.<ref>{{cite magazine  | last = Hempe  | first = Mary Anne  | title = A Never-Mess-With-Adrien Brody Double Feature  | magazine = POP Magazine  | date = April 22, 2011  | url = http://issuu.com/normantranscript/docs/nor-2011-04-22-p  | access-date = September 21, 2011  | archive-date = October 8, 2012  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121008003523/http://issuu.com/normantranscript/docs/nor-2011-04-22-p  | url-status = live  }}</ref> The sex orgy scene at Plato's Retreat included more explicit shots in the original cut but was edited after the [[MPAA]] threatened the film with an [[Motion Picture Association of America film rating system#X replaced by NC-17|"NC-17"]] rating.<ref>{{cite web  | last = Berardinelli  | first = James  | title = Summer of Sam: A Film Review  | year = 1999  | url = http://preview.reelviews.net/movies/s/summer_sam.html  | access-date = September 21, 2011  | archive-date = January 2, 2020  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200102195114/http://preview.reelviews.net/movies/s/summer_sam.html  | url-status = live  }}</ref><ref name=EW/>

Summer of Sam: Original Soundtrack was released on June 29, 1999 and features [[disco]] and [[Rock music|rock]] songs from the 1970s.

1. "[[Got to Give It Up]]" - [[Marvin Gaye]] (6:02)

2. "[[Dancing Queen]]" - [[ABBA]] (3:49)

3. "[[Baba O'Riley]]" - [[The Who]] (5:09)

4. "Running Away" - [[Roy Ayers]] (3:12)

5. "[[Everybody Dance (Chic song)|Everybody Dance]]" - [[Chic (band)|Chic]] (3:31)

6. "[[La Vie en rose|La Vie en Rose]]" - [[Grace Jones]] (7:27)

7. "Let No Man Put Asunder" - [[First Choice (group)|First Choice]] (7:59)

8. "[[Fooled Around and Fell in Love]]" - [[Elvin Bishop]] (2:58)

9. "There But for the Grace of God Go I" - [[Machine (band)|Machine]] (4:58)

10. "[[Best of My Love (The Emotions song)|Best of My Love]]" - [[The Emotions]] (3:46)

11.  "[[Dance with Me (Peter Brown song)|Dance with Me]]" - [[Peter Brown (singer)|Peter Brown]] (3:50)

12. "[[Don't Leave Me This Way|Don’t Leave Me This Way]]" - [[Thelma Houston]] (3:40)

==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>

==Accolades==
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
|-
! Award
! Category
! Subject
! Result
|-
| [[ALMA Awards]]<ref>{{cite web |title=2000 ALMA Awards Nominees |url=http://www.almaawards.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=61 |website=ALMA Awards |access-date=30 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021019224250/http://www.almaawards.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=61 |archive-date=2002-10-19 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
| Outstanding Actor in a Feature Film
| [[John Leguizamo]]
| {{Nominated}}
|-
| rowspan=2|[[Black Reel Awards of 2000|Black Reel Awards]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Past Winners & Nominees |url=https://www.blackreelawards.com/past-nominees-winners-by-category |website=Black Reel Awards |access-date=30 December 2023 |archive-date=May 17, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220517103808/https://www.blackreelawards.com/past-nominees-winners-by-category |url-status=live }}</ref>
| Best Film Soundtrack
| [[Terence Blanchard]]
| {{Nominated}}
|-
| Theatrical - Best Director
| rowspan=3|[[Spike Lee]]
| {{Nominated}}
|-
| [[1999 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards|Stinkers Bad Movie Awards]]<ref>{{cite web |title='Wild Wild West,' 'Phantom Menace' are biggest losers in annual Stinkers bad movie poll |url=http://www.thestinkers.com/pr_winners99.html |website=The Stinkers |access-date=30 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020217144540/http://www.thestinkers.com/pr_winners99.html |archive-date=February 17, 2002 |date=March 24, 2000}}</ref>
| Worst Supporting Actor
| {{Nominated}}
|-
| [[Valladolid International Film Festival]]
| Golden Spike
| {{Nominated}}
|}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb title|0162677}}
* {{Mojo title|summerofsam}}
* {{Rotten Tomatoes|summer_of_sam}}

{{Spike Lee}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Summer Of Sam}}
[[Category:1999 films]]
[[Category:1999 crime drama films]]
[[Category:1990s serial killer films]]
[[Category:1999 crime thriller films]]
[[Category:40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks films]]
[[Category:Films about adultery in the United States]]
[[Category:American crime drama films]]
[[Category:American crime thriller films]]
[[Category:American serial killer films]]
[[Category:Drama films based on actual events]]
[[Category:1990s English-language films]]
[[Category:Films about Italian-American culture]]
[[Category:Films scored by Terence Blanchard]]
[[Category:Films about male prostitution in the United States]]
[[Category:Films directed by Spike Lee]]
[[Category:Films shot in New York City]]
[[Category:Films set in 1977]]
[[Category:Films set in the Bronx]]
[[Category:1990s Italian-language films]]
[[Category:Punk films]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Spike Lee]]
[[Category:Crime films based on actual events]]
[[Category:Touchstone Pictures films]]
[[Category:Cultural depictions of David Berkowitz]]
[[Category:Films produced by Jon Kilik]]
[[Category:1999 multilingual films]]
[[Category:American multilingual films]]
[[Category:Italian-language American films]]
[[Category:1990s American films]]
[[Category:English-language crime drama films]]
[[Category:English-language crime thriller films]]