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Summer of Sam
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Summer of Sam is a 1999 crime-drama based around the Son of Sam serial murders. It was directed and produced by Spike Lee.
ummer 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 when 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.
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Encyclopedia
Summer of Sam is a 1999 crime-drama based around the Son of Sam serial murders. It was directed and produced by Spike Lee.
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 when 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 (Vinny), an unfaithful hairdresser married to Dionna (played by Mira Sorvino), a hard-working waitress; and Adrien Brody as 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.
Local mob boss Luigi (Ben Gazzara) decides that he and his henchmen need to take it upon themselves to protect the neighborhood by identifying the Son of Sam themselves. A few of his men begin to turn their suspicions on Ritchie. They have no real reason; his flamboyant and strange lifestyle simply gets their attention.
Cast
Trivia
- After they are refused entry into Studio 54, the sex scene between Dionna and Vinny 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 version of the film that routinely airs on television omits footage related to the subplot regarding Richie (Adrien Brody)'s homosexuality and prostitution of himself for money.
- 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 315 times in this 142-minute film, an average of 2.22 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.
Themes
The film uses the murders as a backdrop to investigate scapegoating, intolerance, xenophobia, and the tendency to identify misfits within a community with evil that falls upon it. Lee uses references to The Who and punk rock to point out Richie's outsider status (as most of the residents of the neighborhood prefer disco music), and the band's music to provoke violent images through collages within the film.
A great deal of time in the film is dedicated to Vinny's problems with premature ejaculation.
Filming locations
The film was largely shot during the summer of 1998 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's killings actually took place in Queens.
The real CBGB's was used, however the band playing on stage, L.E.S. Stitches, is a contemporary punk band.
External links
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