Director: Spike Lee
Entertainment grade: B-
History grade: A-
Between July 1976 and August 1977, a serial killer known as Son of Sam terrorised New York City.
Crime
As films about real-life serial killers go, Summer of Sam is unusual. Rather than having either the killer or an investigator as the lead, it focuses on a fictional group of Italian-Americans who live in the neighbourhood in which Son of Sam is killing. Sharp-eyed viewers familiar with New York City may notice this seems to be the Bronx. In real life, Son of Sam's crimes were mostly committed in Queens. As he wrote in his most famous letter, (which is quoted in the film, though without this particular line): "I love to hunt. Prowling the streets looking for fair game – tasty meat. The wemon of Queens are z prettyist of all." On the other hand, it is true that this letter was left for police at a murder site in the Bronx, after the double shooting of Alexander Esau and Valentina Suriani on 17 April 1977. The film depicts this accurately, though in a fictional twist its character Vinny (John Leguizamo) narrowly misses becoming a victim.
Dialogue
The fictional characters go on with their lives, which mainly seem to involve having sex, disco dancing and saying the word "fuck". According to a Christian parenting website, which devotes itself to itemising such things, this word is said 435 times in Summer of Sam. It's a record for a non-pornographic movie, beaten only to the top spot of Wikipedia's highly informative list of films that most frequently use the word "fuck" by a documentary about the word itself.
Psychology
Occasionally the action flashes away to the Son of Sam (Michael Badalucco), eventually identified as postal worker David Berkowitz. He lives in a standard-issue serial killer apartment: a bare, dirty mattress, satanic scrawl decor, big holes in the walls where he's punched them. A bit of a fixer-upper. Berkowitz's neighbour's dog, a black Labrador called Harvey, barks all night. Berkowitz is tortured by the noise, so he shoots Harvey. This is accurate. In real life, he also tried to blow Harvey up with a molotov cocktail. Animal lovers will be pleased to know that the indomitable Harvey survived both attacks, though Berkowitz was eventually convicted of the murders of six people and the wounding of seven more. Berkowitz later claimed the howling of dogs was a signal from demons, telling him to kill. The film portrays this so well that you may wish it would spend more time on its compelling portrait of this real-life monster, and less on its fictional characters, who are still hanging around, repeating their favourite word.
Culture
The fictional-character focus allows Summer of Sam to build up a detailed social and cultural history of New York City. There is a brilliant recreation of the notorious blackout of 13-14 July 1977, and its associated crimewave. It's a striking reminder of the bitingly tense atmosphere in which the Son of Sam killings took place. Much of the film is devoted to music: Vinny is into disco and aspires to dance at the brand-new Studio 54, while his old friend Ritchie (Adrien Brody) becomes a punk and plays at CBGB. At one point, they're both in a cafe when Talking Heads' Psycho Killer comes on the radio. An irresistible addition to the soundtrack, no doubt, but the scene is set in late July or early August 1977. Psycho Killer was first released on the album 77, which wasn't available until 16 September that year. Since it's almost the only blooper in an otherwise immaculately recreated historical setting, we can probably let Spike Lee get away with that one.
Verdict
A skillfully made and evocative portrait of New York City in the summer of 1977, but it feels like a more coherent – and more interesting – story is hovering just out of reach.
