A few weeks ago, I heard a young actress talk about why so many contemporary films were being set in the '70s. Her reasoning was that those days were a purer time when people could freely express themselves without fear of disease or violence. Summer of Sam, Spike Lee's new film, is a powerful rebuke to that sort of shallow thinking.
One of the great strengths of Lee's film, of which there are many, is how convincingly it portrays New York circa 1977, when punk and disco collided with fear, and Reggie Jackson and Son of Sam traded headlines.
You could be forgiven for thinking Summer of Sam, with its provocative title, would focus on the lurid story of David Berkowitz, who went on a deranged killing spree in 1977. Instead, the Son of Sam functions more as setting, helping define the fear and anger that are the trademark emotions of most of Spike Lee's best work.
The story revolves around Vinnie (John Leguizamo), a hairdresser who loves his wife Dionna (Mira Sorvino) but can't stop cheating with every available woman. Leguizamo, who's best known for his one-man performance art shows, gives a fabulous performance as a man who struggles with breaking free of society's norms, particularly the sexual ones. While he likes his sex rough and kinky, he can't stomach that with his wife, who must remain pure in his eyes. Sorvino (a great actress often cast in sub-par movies like Romy and Michelle and At First Sight) is also marvelous as the wife who suspects her husband of cheating but can't figure out how to change him. And then there's Ritchie (Adrien Brody), another guy from the neighborhood, but one who's broken out of the neighborhood and its constraints with his embrace of punk music.
While these three characters try to sort out their lives, New York is seething around them. Not only is the Son of Sam instilling fear, but the incredible heat of 1977 leads to the famous blackout (which Lee captures perfectly); while the rise of both disco and punk has created new avenues for self-expression.
It's no surprise that music plays a prominent role in a Spike Lee film, but it is particularly effective here. The contrast of punk and disco with its anger, disco with its sexualityis a nice motif for defining both characters and the choices they make. Interestingly, the most prominent musical artist in the film is the Who (neither punk nor disco), with two songs from their great early '70s album Who's Next. And that's a good choice. Both "Baba O'Riley" and "Won't Get Fooled Again" are perfect soundtracks for the anger and frustration that Lee is portraying.
Spike Lee's best scenes are the ones where the anger that has lain just beneath the surface explodes in confrontation. This is powerfully shown in two arguments that Vinnie and Dionna have near the end of the film. In one, the two are fighting after they participate uneasily in a swingers' orgy. The other occurs after Dionna finds out what Vinnie's been up to. Both are spectacular eruptions of rage with virtuoso performances by Leguizamo and Sorvino.
The film is far from perfect, though. In particular, a quartet of loserslow-time Mafia thugs who stand on the street corner selling dope and trying to figure out which of their friends is the Son of Sam are so cartoonish in both their stupidity and villainy that they ruin almost every scene they're in, which wouldn't be a problem if their roles weren't so prominent. Unfortunately, they are central characters in driving the plot, especially in the final reel where they finally guess who the Son of Sam is and set out to extract justice. I'm sure in Lee's mind that they represent the old way, with its conservatism and stifling rigidity. But here, compared to the rich characterizations of Vinnie, Ritchie and Dionna, they stand out like punks at a Donna Summers show: over-the-top and out of place.
The film also struggles with balancing Vinnie's narrative and the other "8 million stories in the naked city." For me, the best part of Summer of Sam, besides the relationship of Leguizamo and Sorvino, was its portrayal of New York City. That Spike Lee can't bring everything together is both understandable and a little unfortunate.
Be forewarned: the movie is violent and very sexual. Those hoping to see Mira Sorvino naked will be disappointed, but it's not hard to see why Summer of Sam almost got an NC-17 rating. On the other hand, as the sex and violence fit in both the story and the setting, they never feel exploitive. Jarring and difficult, yes, but never exploitive.
J Robert Parks
