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The mouse >> Lee's Summer of Sam takes on a famous season of paranoia
by JOANNE LATIMER
"I knew we'd hear from the parents of the victims when we we set out to do this," says Lee, choosing his words like someone briefed by a lawyer. "The father of 'Donna' [one of the Son of Sam's victims] led a protest for 10 days when we did an open casting call. We haven't heard anything since. I suspect we will, when the film's released. Um, but we don't feel we exploit the victim's deaths in any way." Looking surly, Lee is annoyed by any reference to violence in his film. He taps the edge of his glass with a stir stick, metronome style, as he talks. "This is not a glorification of David Berkowitz," explains Lee, in reference to the famous serial killer whose legacy inspired the film. Lee's eyes dart around the Noga Hilton Hotel, where his handlers are going over a strategy to get him through a crowd of fans. "We're looking at the effects of violence--the reverberations, trying to get at the roots of it," Lee continued, once assured of his exit route through the throng. "That summer, 1977, was insane with the heat. It was the first summer of disco. It was the summer I knew I wanted to be a filmmaker. So the film is supposed to be about Sam's effect on the psyche of eight million New Yorkers--not really about him."
Boogie nights And indeed it's not really about Berkowitz. But Summer of Sam is occasionally unnecessarily lurid and brutally violent. It's about a terrible misunderstanding between two old friends (John Leguizamo and Adrien Brody). Leguizamo's wife (played by Mira Sorvino) tries to bolster her bad marriage on the dancefloor, where Lee gives us the most believable remake of disco fever to date. Lee cuts to glimpses of the killer, in his lair, as Leguizamo and Brody's row escalates along with the city's paranoia. Summer of Sam is a slow starter, but its second hour had everyone twisting in their seat. Lee's skills in this department are worrying a few people associated with the 1977 tragedy. One of Berkowitz's escapees approached Lee with her beefs about the film, and asked him flat out not to make it. She only recently regained the ability to sleep at night, 20 years later, and is afraid that the hype about the film will cause a setback. Lee met her at a restaurant and told her he couldn't drop the project. "The train had left the station," he explains, shrugging. "The boat had left the pier. We were already spending Disney's money."
Making the rating Lee had trouble coming up with a final cut that would avoid the dreaded NC-17 rating--the seal that essentially shuts out much of the main moviegoing demographic. It was in Lee's contract with Disney to deliver a film with an R rating, or better. "The MPAA people have a double standard for sex and violence," he says, suddenly halting the stir stick. "I mean, this is a very violent film. They didn't say one thing about the violence. They were only worried about the sex. What's an NC-17 film then? I liked Saving Private Ryan very much--especially in the first hour. But if that's not an NC-17 film, I don't know what is. You have people walking around picking up their arms and that's an R rating? But then that's Steven Spielberg, and he can do anything he wants." Though he's become marked as an ambassador for the African-American community, in recent interviews Lee has been brushing aside questions about his contribution to African Americans. Upon hearing the topic, he rolls his eyes and starts tapping his glass again. "The first thing a successful black is asked after he gets some money is what he's going to do for his people. The Rolling Stones make tons of money and nobody asks Mick Jagger what he's going to do for his people." Summer of Sam wasn't selected for the official competition, held in the Palais. Rumour has it that Spike's furious at this slight. When asked if he wanted to talk about how Gilles Jacob, the Film Pope of Cannes, decides where to put the films, Lee snapped, "No." He then promptly disappeared into a huddle of guys wearing ear pieces and dark suits.
Summer of Sam opens Friday, July 2 |
What was Disney thinking? That Spike Lee would make a mild-mannered film about David Berkowitz's '70s killing spree in New York? In the wake of controversy over Lee's hot-button subject, Summer of Sam packed a wallop at Cannes, where it premiered in the Director's Fortnight program. The film is an ensemble piece, profiling a series of New Yorkers who are caught up in the potential horror Berkowitz, aka the Son of Sam, might just wreak on their lives.