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The Agony and the Ecstacy: Reflections on Spike Lee's Films This Summer of Summer of Sam
by Jordan Hoffman

published 7/5/99

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Jordan Hoffman is LeisureSuit.net's Queens-based Senior Editor.



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Whether or not you like Spike Lee’s films is irrelevant. Whether or not you’ve seen Spike Lee’s films is irrelevant. You have an opinion of him as a person, and as a thinker. So few artists achieve this level of public notoriety, and of that select group, there is only a handful of African-Americans. This achievement, regardless of the success of Spike Lee’s films artistically, is a success we must recognize. Ask a man in the street who doesn’t know much about cinema to name some directors. You’ll get Hitchcock, Spielberg, maybe Scorsese or Kubrick, and then you’ll get Lee.

In my opinion, Lee has made two brilliant films, Do The Right Thing and Crooklyn. He’s only made one awful film, Get On The Bus. The rest fall somewhere in between. My girlfriend has noted, though, that I never go a day without quoting one of Spike’s two great films. Usually it’s Sweet Dick Willie from Do The Right Thing: “It ain’t never too hot to fuck!” This comes up a lot in summer. Radio Raheem’s “Two Slices” comes up a lot around dinner-time. “I’m watchin’ the Knicks!” from Crooklyn is said twelve times during every sporting event I see, be it the Knicks or not. So there’s something working directly on my wavelength with Lee’s films, much to the chagrin of my loved ones. When I began hearing about his new one, based on the much-read un-produced screenplay “Anarchy In The Bronx.” I was intrigued. It was a taut psychological descent-into-hell, in a Sam Peckinpah or Roman Polanski vein. Then Spike changed the script, fattened it up, added a dozen characters and motifs, put Jimmy Breslin in it, and had the coolest posters I’d ever seen. There was no way the picture could live up to my expectations.

I walked away from Summer of Sam a bundle of mixed emotions. As with much of Lee’s work, I found myself unsure whether I had witnessed a movie of genre-bending film-art cut from the European mold, or if I had seen a slapped-together homework assignment handed in at the last minute. What we love about Lee is what we hate about Lee. His films create tableaus, urban opera. The use of setting and backdrop, a dead end cul-du-sac in a Bronx hot summer, to use the most recent example, would be position 1-A on a theater lighting grid. While this sort of behavior is dead on as far as ethnographic observation is concerned (and I live in an outer-borough immigrant community, so I know) it puts one in a difficult spot when crafting a traditional three-act narrative. For each brilliantly constructed near-trivial observation, body language or dialogue, we suffer through three times as much that, frankly, is not so brilliant.

Leguizamo & Bebe Neuwirth
Leguizamo and Bebe Neuwirth get caught up in the Summer of Sam
A bit about Summer of Sam. It is 1977, the hottest summer in recent New York history (except for the summer of Do The Right Thing, I guess), which leads to a blackout, which leads to riots in some communities, happening while the outer-boroughs are paralyzed with fear over the “.44 Caliber Killer” who calls himself the Son of Sam. Wandering the streets, killing smooching couples and girls with long brown hair, the Son of Sam brings terror to normally safe neighborhoods, which all become frustrated and paranoid, as well as sweaty. Counter this with some cultural trends, like the apex of CBGB punk versus Studio 54 disco, and the Yankees on their way to winning the World Series, and you’ve got yourself one fucked-up New York. Take just that last bit--a team on its way to winning a championship (which I’ve witnessed firsthand) . . . that’s nearly enough to create a feeling of mass hysteria in the people of New York. And the heat! You think you know about heat. I’ve been to the South, yes, to the skeeter-riddled 100+-degrees south, and, still, this has nothing on New York, where the tall buildings refuse to let air move, where the densely-packed subway platforms become real-life thrill-rides without a net.

What New Yorker wouldn’t want to make a film about all this? Lee’s trouble in Summer of Sam is that he gets a bit caught up in the myth of the setting too much and leaves his story behind. His story is a simple one: In an Italian American community where the Son of Sam has taken lives, the frustrated young men (some loosely cosa nostra) look for someone to take it out on, and they choose the neighborhood’s one odd-duck, the punk-rock-loving, Anglophile, probably bisexual Richie, played wonderfully by Adrian Brody. Richie’s buddy, Vin, played by John Leguizamo, refuses to believe that Richie is the Son of Sam, despite the mounting evidence. He’s got troubles of his own, though, specifically his marriage with Dionna, played by Mira Sorvino, which is crumbling, due really to the fact that the sexual revolution is finally making its way to the outer boroughs.

Brody
Adrian Brody, the Punk Rock scapegoat, loves his guitar and is indifferent to oral sex in Summer of Sam.
It takes a lot of thinking to spit out that quick synopsis, as Summer of Sam is two hours and fifteen minutes of that and so much more. However, I must ask, do I mind missing the cut-and-dry story? Aren’t I really better off with a story based more on tone and mood than plot plot plot? All I do during trailers is roll my eyes over films that seem nothing but clever concept. Bruce Willis helps a boy with special powers in The Sixth Sense. Not to be confused with Bruce Willis helping a boy with special powers in Mercury Rising. Johnny Depp and Charlize Theron in The Astronaut’s Wife trying to create a . . . boy with special powers. As if there aren’t enough real stories right here on Earth! And when one of these stories does come along, all I can do is wince at the amateurish form.

And there is no mistake about this, Spike Lee’s films all sink low into novice territory at one point or another. There’s the much applauded “un-rehearsed” sequence of African-American women whining about their dating troubles in Jungle Fever, as if I need to spend money to watch “Ricki Lake.” The use of Aaron Copland’s music in He Got Game is a daring move, and one that makes sense on paper, but comes off so pompous and ponderous that it makes every sequence feel like a parody. And the occasional lapses of highly-stylized dialogue (“Please baby please baby baby baby please” from She’s Gotta Have It, “I’m Malcolm X!” from Malcolm X, “We’ll catch you Son of Sam!” from Summer of Sam) may seem really smart on paper, but do nothing to me but take me, quickly and without tact, out of the world of the film. All it does is remind me that I’m not watching a regular movie, but a movie made by a genius.

Spike Lee
He's told you he's a genius
No one edits Spike Lee. He gets final cut so long as he delivers an “R” rating. And why not? His films are low-budget and consistently make a minor profit. He hasn’t had a runaway hit since Do The Right Thing, but he hasn’t tanked one either. He’s got a hard-locked deal with Disney (formerly with Universal) not so much for the money he can produce for them, but so they can say they have a genius on the payroll. I’ve thought long and hard about this, and it’s gotta be the same with the Warner Brothers deal with Tim Burton (who is losing WB money.) Spike Lee has frightened people into thinking he is a genius, because he is dynamic on talk shows (which is not to say eloquent, but certainly jarring), appears in shoe commercials, and, let’s face it, we all want a black genius. Of course, there are scores of black geniuses out there, but none working in movies (that we can see) so, by default, that title goes to Lee. Should I be a pain and point out that Spike’s producer and business partner John Kilik is white, as is his editor, Barry Brown? Probably not; people will ask me what my point is.

Spike Lee admits to entering NYU Film School with no particular film heroes or favorites. One can read this as a statement about the sad lack of African-American filmmakers pre-Lee, which is purely an economic problem, or, one can read it that Lee started making movies just ‘cause he felt like it, without a particular love for it, and without much of a roadmap. I think it might be the latter. To this day, there are fingerprints of the rank amateur all over his films; however, he does have an uncanny knack to pick very interesting projects, and then bury them in a haze of importance and would-be genius. But as a writer, and, particularly, a film craftsman, he still needs a collaborator. Maybe he’d be best off as a producer.

There's a scene in Summer of Sam in washed-out color saturated film stock, put to weighty terence Blanchard music, where Sam, the dead dog, tells David Berkowitz to kill. His mouth moves the way Babe's mouth moved. The whole theater burst into laughter. I'm not sure we were supposed to. The scene was not in the original script. No one was in a position to tell Spike Lee to cut it.


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Name: jeremy
Subject: Barcelona
-- Jun 5, 2005 at 5:41PM
HEY anouk how barcelona? id love to go how is it over there?

Name: Anouk
Subject: Barcelona
-- Feb 6, 2004 at 2:05PM
Hola julia!
Vi a Spike Lee rodando abajo de mi casa en la calle Montsio con Magdalenas en Barcelona. Entonces no era una peli?

Name: The Editors Respond
Subject: Re: bebe
-- Jun 23, 2003 at 12:44AM
You'll find no one disagreeing with you about the virtues of Bebe Neuwirth at LeisureSuit.

Name: bob
Subject: bebe
-- Jun 22, 2003 at 6:46PM
k i think bebe was th ebest part of the whole thing i love her

Name: julia
Subject: descubrir
-- Aug 26, 2001 at 9:16PM
Hola !!Me gustaría descubrir donde se rodará o se ha rodado un pequeño corto o documental dirigido por Spike lee en Barcelona sobre Vocka Absolut.Si alguien fuera tan amable de facilitarme alguna vía de información me ayudaría un montón.Gracias

Name: julia
Subject: descubrir
-- Aug 26, 2001 at 9:16PM
Hola !!Me gustaría descubrir donde se rodará o se ha rodado un pequeño corto o documental dirigido por Spike lee en Barcelona sobre Vocka Absolut.Si alguien fuera tan amable de facilitarme alguna vía de información me ayudaría un montón.Gracias

Name: Alberto Flores
Subject: La mirada hispana
-- Aug 12, 2000 at 8:24AM
Spike Lee vuelve a demostrarnos que es uno de los más sobresalientes directores norteamericanos de la actualidad con un sentido del montaje y del "tempo" narrativo dignos de Scorsese, Raoul Walsh o el mejor Coppola ("The godfather part 2").
"Summer of Sam" es un rayo de luz dentro del aburrido y anodino panorama del Hollywood actual.
Ahora que las inquietas mentes de los grandes estudios nos quieren vender una nueva "generación" de directores y sus tediosas películas ("being John Malkovich", "the sixth tense", "Dogma", "three kings".... y otros desastres...) es justo reivindicar el grupo, que no generación, de cineastas surgidos en los 80, es decir los Coen, Sam Raimi, Jim Jarmusch, Abel Ferrara (un poco anterior), Tim Burton y, por supuesto, Spike Lee.
Ya para finalizar me gustaría destacar el vestuario y la música que no constituyen, como en otras películas ("Boggie Nights"), un hecho folclórico o publicitario para que los "papis" nostálgicos vuelvan a dejarse el dinero en sus canciones de juventud, sino que son parte de un conjunto de enorme capacidad evocadora. Tambien está bien utilizada la esté tica de videoclip, que abunda en el cine de Hollywood actual con resultados catastróficos("Being John Malkovich"), y que en "Summer of Sam" sirve para potenciar visualmente el ambiente de violencia y agresividad del Nueva York del verano de Sam como hiciera Scorsese en "Taxi Driver" y en "Bringing out of the dead" y Bertolucci con su estilo pasoliniano e´idílico en "Noveccento".

Name: Alberto Flores
Subject: La mirada hispana
-- Aug 12, 2000 at 8:24AM
Spike Lee vuelve a demostrarnos que es uno de los más sobresalientes directores norteamericanos de la actualidad con un sentido del montaje y del "tempo" narrativo dignos de Scorsese, Raoul Walsh o el mejor Coppola ("The godfather part 2").
"Summer of Sam" es un rayo de luz dentro del aburrido y anodino panorama del Hollywood actual.
Ahora que las inquietas mentes de los grandes estudios nos quieren vender una nueva "generación" de directores y sus tediosas películas ("being John Malkovich", "the sixth tense", "Dogma", "three kings".... y otros desastres...) es justo reivindicar el grupo, que no generación, de cineastas surgidos en los 80, es decir los Coen, Sam Raimi, Jim Jarmusch, Abel Ferrara (un poco anterior), Tim Burton y, por supuesto, Spike Lee.
Ya para finalizar me gustaría destacar el vestuario y la música que no constituyen, como en otras películas ("Boggie Nights"), un hecho folclórico o publicitario para que los "papis" nostálgicos vuelvan a dejarse el dinero en sus canciones de juventud, sino que son parte de un conjunto de enorme capacidad evocadora. Tambien está bien utilizada la esté tica de videoclip, que abunda en el cine de Hollywood actual con resultados catastróficos("Being John Malkovich"), y que en "Summer of Sam" sirve para potenciar visualmente el ambiente de violencia y agresividad del Nueva York del verano de Sam como hiciera Scorsese en "Taxi Driver" y en "Bringing out of the dead" y Bertolucci con su estilo pasoliniano e´idílico en "Noveccento".

Name: Beka
Subject: I love this movie!!
-- Aug 4, 2000 at 12:36PM
Butter-in the 70's everything was sex and drugs, so, i think they did a great job with the time frame. and the actors did a great job in the movie! especially ADRIAN BRODY!!!! Oh lalala!!!!!

Name: Butteredass2003@aol.com
Subject: Porn
-- Jun 28, 2000 at 5:53PM
this movie was a cheep way to get porn into a movie. It was bearly about the Son of Sam killings and, haha this was just a porn with a plot

Name: Jordan Hoffman Responds
Subject: Re: Spike Lee and Hollywood
-- Feb 29, 2000 at 8:54AM
NBates--To answer your question--not really. I've heard him say the first director he actually studied was Scorsese, and he also has a fondness for Oliver Stone. But I've heard him say in interviews he specifically *didn't* gournadize over classic and world cinema as a kid or a student.

His reason, perhaps valid, was that none of it spoke to him as an African-American.

Name: NBates
Subject: Spike Lee and Hollywood
-- Feb 29, 2000 at 8:26AM
I would like to know what kind of appreciation Spike Lee has on directors like Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick, James Cameron Georges Lucas and on french directors like François Truffaut. And also on a new director like Night Syamalan.
Does he recognize any sort of inheritence from these directors ?

Name: Johnny5Ace
Subject: The Agony and the Ecstacy: Reflections on Spike Lee's Films This Summer of Summer of Sam
-- Jan 14, 2000 at 6:55AM
Just saw this film last night. As with many of Lee's films--with the exceptions of Do The Right Thing and Malcolm X, which were truly great movies--Summer of Sam is not exactly a work of genius. Lee frequently falls short of making as good a movie as we all wanted it to be.

That being said, and whatever all that means, I think Lee did an excellent job in executing this one--disturbing, entertaining, riveting; the kind of film that makes going back to reality after the two-hours-and-change a difficult task. And that should account for something.

Plus, I must commend you on using a picture of Bebe Neuwirth with this article--clearly there is not enough of her on this site already.

Name: dr no
Subject: a nod & a wink?
-- Jul 13, 1999 at 11:34PM
This thought has just presented itself.

In "Summer of Sam", the night of the 1 yr anniversary (when Sam plans to strike again) Ben Gazzara's boys decide to ground the suspects on their list. One is an Italian-American Vietnam Vet Cabbie who works nights, keeps to himself, and is suspected of being a serial killer. Could this be Travis Bickle?????

Name: BillyBob
Subject: Amateur?
-- Jul 6, 1999 at 1:32PM
I've read enough of your weekly columns to know you're not a racist, but I find it odd that, because you didn't really like Summer of Sam, you would accuse Lee of being amateurish. And for what reasons? When David Mamet makes a film with highly-stylized dialogue, do you accuse him of "turning in a homework assignment slapped together at the last minute"?

And okay, since you mention it, what *is* your point when you observe that Lee's editor and producer are white?? That he isn't black enough to be declared a genius based on race alone? Perhaps his race isn't the only reason he's a highly-regarded filmmaker. Just something to think about.

Listen, I haven't liked all of Spike Lee's films. He Got Game, sure (but Aaron Copland's music ponderous and pompous?? I reckon Copland would find that just grand). Summer of Sam, yes. Do the Right Thing . . . frankly, some issues. But it's difficult to argue against the idea that Lee has his own vision, and pretty consistently acheives that vision. If you're not crazy about the vision, why not say "I don't like his vision," rather than accusing him of being a novice? And, yes, I think he knew damn well the talking dog would be funny . . . maybe it took you out of the world of the film, but fer Christ sake--he opens and closes with Jimmy Breslin talking about the film you're about to see . . . the whole film is bookended by that kind of macro-reflexivity.

So, okay, I'm sure you're just making some observations on race, and not practicing racism yourself. But when you single Lee out as a director to pat on the head and say "maybe you'd be more comfortable in the producers chair?", I cringe, just a little.


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