Summer of Sam
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| Summer of Sam | |
|---|---|
 Promotion film poster |
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| Directed by | Spike Lee |
| Written by | Victor Colicchio, Michael Imperioli, Spike Lee |
| Starring | John Leguizamo, Adrien Brody, Mira Sorvino, Jennifer Esposito, Michael Rispoli, Saverio Guerra, Brian Tarantina |
| Music by | Terence Blanchard |
| Cinematography | Ellen Kuras |
| Editing by | Barry Alexander Brown |
| Distributed by | Touchstone Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 1999 |
| Running time | 142 min |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English, Italian |
| IMDb profile | |
Summer of Sam is a 1999 film about the Son of Sam serial murders. It was directed and produced by Spike Lee.
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[edit] Plot
It 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 in which the headlines were dominated by the Son of Sam serial killer case. The film stars John Leguizamo, Mira Sorvino, Adrien Brody, Jennifer Esposito, Michael Imperioli (who co-wrote the screenplay), and Bebe Neuwirth.
While the Son of Sam is terrorizing New York City, fear-driven residents of a tight-knit Italian American neighborhood start pointing fingers at anyone who doesn't fit in the crowd as suspects. The movie focuses on a pair of young couples. John Leguizamo plays Vinny, an unfaithful hairdresser married to Dionna (played by Mira Sorvino) who works as a waitress. Adrien Brody plays Ritchie, 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.
Slowly, the locals begin to turn their suspicions on Ritchie. They have no real reason; his flamboyant and strange lifestyle gets their attention.
[edit] Themes
The film investigates scapegoating and the tendency to identify misfits within a community with evil that falls upon it. Lee uses references to The Who to point out Richie's misfit status, and the band's music to provoke violent images through collages within the film.
[edit] Filming locations
The film was largely shot and set in the Country Club and Throgs Neck sections of the Bronx, Italian-American neighborhoods which David Berkowitz terrorized in 1977. With some Scenes filmed in Brownsville, Brooklyn
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Summer of Sam at the Internet Movie Database
- Summer of Sam at Rotten Tomatoes
- Summer of Sam at Box Office Mojo
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