"Summer of Sam" Shows the Wrong of Prejudice

By Andrew Bender

In the summer of 1977, while New York City was coming apart at the seams, obsessed with tracking down a serial killer calling himself "Son of Sam," I was at camp in Connecticut singing "Ma Tovu" every Shabbos with my fellow bunkmates.

Much to the chagrin of the Jewish community, "Son of Sam," a.k.a. David Berkowitz, was Jewish. (Rather, according to the Anti-Defamation League, his adoptive parents were Jewish.) Interestingly, the new movie, "Summer of Sam," from director Spike Lee, overlooks this fact altogether.

Instead, "Summer of Sam," Lee's most moving, socially relevant, and just plain best film since "Do the Right Thing," sets the murders against other New York obsessions of that summer -- disco, punk, 100-degree temperatures, a blackout with ensuing looting, frilly fringe-y clothing, and lots of sex and drugs.

The result is a highly charged backdrop for the tale of Vinny, a Bronx-style Italian-American good-ol' boy and incorrigible skirtchaser, played brilliantly by John Leguizamo. Initially so cocky that he romances both his wife (Mira Sorvino) and her bellissima cousin on the same night (albeit in different locations), Vinny begins to unravel when he catches a grisly glimpse of two of the killer's victims near his home. As the death toll mounts, Vinny's friends, unwilling to trust the manhunt to the police, become neighborhood vigilantes and compile a list of wide-ranging suspects that is at once hilarious and sinister.

Meanwhile, Vinny's best friend Ritchie ("The Thin Red Line's" Adrien Brody), returns to the neighborhood after a long absence, having eschewed his Bronx identity for that of a British punk (and later, we find, even edgier guises). It is Ritchie's deliberate rejection of his roots that really arouses suspicion and sets the story ablaze.

You may find this film tedious if you don't like Spike Lee's style. He is famous, for instance, for letting actors ad lib, so some scenes ramble (this film runs 2:20). Worse, he engages in excess -- and I'm not talking about the film's copious sex, drug-taking, violence or profanity, no doubt offensive to some, but which appropriately evoke the time and place.

The audience howled with (unintended) laughter when Berkowitz, played by "The Practice's" Michael Badalucco, came face to face with the dog who allegedly ordered him to go on his killing spree -- imagine a character from "Babe" bellowing "Kill! Kill!" Lee also cast himself as a TV reporter with the silly delivery of the slacker he once played in sneaker commercials. Then there's his signature Annoying Track Shot, which makes characters appear to float toward camera when they're supposed to be walking. Whose bright idea was this, and why does Lee always use it?

Yet not even these distractions dampen the great story, a rarity these days, played by uniformly strong actors. Leguizamo shows his chops as Vinny struggles to save his relationships with wife, best friend, and neighbors, and there is real drama as the police and neighborhood gang hone in on their respective targets. Even Sorvino, who has bored me post-"Mighty Aphrodite," is compelling as the mistreated wife. Brody's Ritchie bounces between ridiculous, charming, and disturbing, and Michael Rispoli, as neighborhood ringleader Joey, goes from affable to monstrous in the space of two hours.

The soundtrack, ranging from Abba to the Who, complements the action well and brings back fond memories. If enjoying the music despite the macabre film theme is a crime, I plead guilty.

On the surface, you could fault Spike Lee for making just another serial killer movie. But taking nothing away from the horror of the murders, ultimately this movie is about something else -- mankind's propensity to vilify people we don't like or don't know.

"Summer of Sam" also brings to my mind the idea that people of one race or ethnic orientation mistreat others outside of their own particular group. Thankfully, we have organizations such as the ADL and the Simon Wiesenthal Center to warn against such phenomena, but we all need to be vigilant of encouraging such prejudices.

Andrew Bender is a Los Angeles-based writer who specializes in culture, travel and restaurants. He frequently contributes to The Los Angeles Times and Conde Nast Traveler. He also is a sometime screenwriter.