Summer of Sam

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Summer of Sam

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Spike Lee
Produced by Spike Lee
Michael Imperioli
Written by Spike Lee
Michael Imperioli
Starring John Leguizamo
Adrien Brody
Mira Sorvino
Jennifer Esposito
Music by Terence Blanchard
Cinematography Ellen Kuras
Distributed by Touchstone Pictures
Release date(s) July 2, 1999
Running time 142 min.
Country Flag of the United States
Language English
Italian
Budget $22 million
Gross revenue $19,288,130
IMDb profile

Summer of Sam is a 1999 crime-drama-romance-thriller film about the Son of Sam serial murders. It was directed and produced by Spike Lee.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Summer of Sam is the story of a group of people in New York City (particularly the Throgs Neck/Country Club section of The Bronx) in the summer of 1977, a time in which the headlines were dominated by the Son of Sam serial killer case.

While the Son of Sam is terrorizing New York City, fear-driven residents of a tight-knit Italian American neighborhood begin to suspect anyone who doesn't fit in with the crowd. The movie focuses on a pair of young couples. John Leguizamo plays Vincent, an unfaithful hairdresser married to Dionna (played by Mira Sorvino), a hard-working waitress. Adrien Brody plays Ritchie, one of Vincent's closest friends and a newly-turned punk who dates a woman named Ruby (Jennifer Esposito); Ritchie leads a secret life dancing, and selling himself for sex, at a gay club.

Slowly, the locals begin to turn their suspicions on Ritchie. They have no real reason; his flamboyant and strange lifestyle simply gets their attention.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Trivia

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • After they are refused entry into Studio 54, the sex scene between Dionna (Mira Sorvino) and Vinny (John Leguizamo) included more explicit shots in the original cut. This scene was edited a bit after the MPAA threatened the film with an "NC-17" rating.
  • The credits are in the form of newspaper headlines.
  • Leonardo DiCaprio and Benicio del Toro were originally considered for the lead roles.
  • The word "fuck" is said 326 times in this 142-minute film, an average of 2.29 times per minute. See List of films that most frequently use the word "fuck".
  • Adrien Brody's nose was broken during the final climatic fight scene in which his character Richie is brutally beaten by his friends.
  • Idina Menzel is known to have been in the film as Richie's girlfriend, but her scenes were cut before final release.
  • Although they are only meant as a backdrop to the film, the murders appear to happen sequentially in the space of the film, when in fact the first couple of the murders in the film happened a lot earlier in 1977 than the film is set.

[edit] Themes

The film investigates scapegoating, intolerance, xenophobia, and the tendency to identify misfits within a community with evil that falls upon it. Lee uses references to The Who to point out Richie's outsider status. (As most of the residence of the neighboorhood prefer disco music.), and the band's music to provoke violent images through collages within the film.

The film has some scenes set in the punk rock club CBGB portraying what it might have been like there in 1977.

A great deal of time in the film is dedicated to Vinny's problems with premature ejaculation.

[edit] Filming locations

The film was largely shot and set in the Italian-American neighborhoods of Country Club, Morris Park, and Throgs Neck sections of the Bronx which David Berkowitz terrorized in 1977, with some scenes filmed in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Specifically, Marie's Beauty Lounge, the salon where Vincent works, is a real, still active salon located on Morris Park Avenue, between Williamsbridge Road and Bronxdale Avenue. Most of Berkowitz' killings actually took place in Queens.

[edit] External links

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Films directed by Spike Lee
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