Review of Summer of Sam (1999) by Priya K — 13 Sep 2007

It's set against the backdrop of the summer of '77 in New York, in which the .44 calibre killings was a major factor but hardly the only one.

A well done sense of time and place - it was the time of heat waves, power cuts, fading 54-ish disco, excessive drug use, rising brit punk, Yankees at the top of their game and serial killer David Berkovitz.

Ok, let me get my negative criticisms out of the way first so that I can end on a positive note. It's too long. I can understand that Lee was trying to depict a community under siege, but by trying to cover so much, the sense of focus is somewhat lost as to message he was trying to convey. It could have been cut to an hour and a half and could have been more tight and focused.

If you are expecting a "serial killer" movie, then you are going to be thoroughly disappointed.Instead we get a whole array of amplified caricatures for an interesting analysis of human behaviour in what could be perceived as a highly-stressful/crisis situation. A lesser movie may have focused more on the killer. Lee avoids that brilliantly.

This film brings to life the saying "Fear of the unknown", when all the social dilemmas bubbling under the surface spills over on the pretext of 'finding the Son of Sam'. Perhaps relevant even today, with all the paranoia and uncertainty surrounding terrorism.

One thing confused me, though; all of the scenes depicting African-Americans were extremely unflattering. Brilliantly done caricatures, with Lee himself as a black reporter, for a white network, confronted by resentful residents of Brooklyn (one of whom has one of the truest lines in the movie: that if the Son of Sam had been black, the city would have been in one huge race riot).

Later we get all that footage of the looting during the blackout. So, what is Lee doing here? Remember, it's shown to us through a news report--a white-controlled medium showing white people how black people were "behaving". In other words, Lee is showing us what white New Yorkers were being told at the time about black New Yorkers.

Still, even more than that is going on.

Notice the contrast in the blackout scenes, between the way the looters were behaving vs. the way the local mob boss controls his neighbourhood and turns it into a party? Things outside are in chaotic and dangerous, but everybody in the neighbourhood is safe.

Is Lee criticizing the black community for not pulling together in the same way? I don't know.

What I do know is that, this one will make you think.