Just saw this for the first time on DVD. It wasn't bad, but I wasn't completely wowed by it either. Good performances, an intriguing story, well-shot, but it felt like something was missing. Not entirely sure what, though, I might have to think on it a bit.

What does PTP think of this overlooked Spike flick?

Summer of Sam >>>>> Pulp Fiction

I thought it was cool when I first saw it and years later when I came back to it, I thought it was/is a solid flick, but maybe the missing element was the deeper despair of the situations and the heightened sexuality of those situations.

In a swingers club, Mira Sorvino and John Leguizamo aren't the people I want to see going through that.

Mind you, I'm spitballing, but for all that's good about it, I couldn't shake what was off about it. Lots of elements - Brody, Bebe, Berkowitz - a lot going on.

It's still better than most though.

I just watched this movie again this afternoon then came on here and saw this post.......I like this film a lot. Yeah there;s loads going on but that's wat I love about Spike Lee films... the subplots are always intriguing...

And in these days of terror alerts the whole paranoid community thing is relevant....it got me to thinking about about a news story I read of a bunch of people beating up a Doctor in their community because he was a paediotrician but they read it wrongly as paeodophile....that pack mentality make people do some irrational shit....
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galaxy rays.......powerful............Raise it up...... Ultramagnetic.....

I didn't really care about what happened with Leguizamo and Mira Sorvino

I about checked out by the time the talking dog (voiced by John Turturro) showed up

Talking about this movie reminds me of that awful ESPN "The Bronx is Burning" series that was on last year... how much more fun would that miniseries had been if Spike were involved with it and it were on another network, like HBO?
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I'm so happy
Doin' the neutron dance
I'm just burnin'
Doin' the neutron dance
Woo hoo

...regarding the music-thing; there is *so* much wrong in this picture. Why would an american in the birthplace of punk be enarmoured with Britain before british punk crossed over (Never mind the Bollocks hadn't even dropped yet)? Why is he wearing a mohican, a haircut that didn't become vogue until oi!-punk years later? Why is he playing a song from the Who's stadium-rock era (as opposed to something like "My Generation" or "Substitute") as an example of them being the godfathers of punk?

The thing is that I don't even care much about punk but Spike was REALLY out of his element here...

Otherwise, the movie is cool but I'm a sucker for movies like that. Still, some fact-checking or consulting regarding the music-thing wouldn't have hurt...

I mean, make him a Ramones guy (if you wanna go obvious) or a Dictators guy or something. The fixation on British-styles without proper credit or reference to the American bands (especially for a New Yorker) was weird. Especially because the New York scene was so tight and at times kinda dismissive of the British bands (Maybe not dismissive, actually...maybe just not blown away, because it wasn't as new to them).

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2006-07 Zeno Memorial Cup winner: Chara SMASH

Dark grin, he can't help when he's happy, looks insane...

that was the whole point of his fascination with punk, it was an escape from his insular, close-minded, suffocating Italian Bronx neighborhood. the mohawk emphasized the point where he's broken so far from it that he's seen as a complete outsider + a threat to that insular community, even by his best friend.

may not be quite accurate wrt a real-world timeframe, but it served the purpose in the movie to emphasize that about his character.

Who was it that said Spike shouldn't work with white people?

I agree with whoever said that.

My bad.

I guess Rosario doesn't count in making it a more ethnic film.

Awesome film though.

*shruggs*

n/m


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I saw this back when it came out in the theater and really didn't like it. Thing that I remember vividly is that the movie was more than half over before I really had a sense of a POV character. It seemed intentional on the director's part to portray these characters in such a way as to keep them at arms length from me, the audience. There was stuff happening, but I really didn't feel like I was supposed to care.

By the time I get around to figuring out who I should be identifying with, I just don't care anymore about the characters or the movie. I no longer have any goodwill towards the director and his intentions. I feel that, at best, he doesn't care about me, and at worst, he's toying with me.

In general, I've found that I don't like Spike Lee movies. There have been a couple of exceptions like Malcolm X and Inside Man, but in general, there's always at least one (at least one) glaring flaw in his movies that plays out like it did for Summer of Sam and it seems to stem from a gargantuan ego. It's not simply that Spike Lee has something to teach (or preach) in his stories, it's that he comes across like he thinks he's better than me, smarter than me, doing this for my own good, like he's a stuck-up professor and I should feel privileged to be in his class.

When he can subjugate his ego and just make a movie (as with Inside Man) or the subject is undeniably bigger than his ego or he has actual reverence for (Malcolm X), he seems to be able to just tell a story, but those moments are far too rare in his output.

>I saw this back when it came out in the theater and really
>didn't like it. Thing that I remember vividly is that the
>movie was more than half over before I really had a sense of a
>POV character. It seemed intentional on the director's part to
>portray these characters in such a way as to keep them at arms
>length from me, the audience. There was stuff happening, but I
>really didn't feel like I was supposed to care.

Wrong. You were probably high. The characters were
very compelling. The film took place in the middle
of New York City during the era of a serial killer...it
had a chaotic feel to it that was completely intentional
and 100% appropriate.

>By the time I get around to figuring out who I should be
>identifying with, I just don't care anymore about the
>characters or the movie. I no longer have any goodwill towards
>the director and his intentions. I feel that, at best, he
>doesn't care about me, and at worst, he's toying with me.

Jesus. Spike Lee actually doesn't know you, and he
doesn't care about "toying" with you. He's making a
movie, for christ sakes.

>In general, I've found that I don't like Spike Lee movies.
>There have been a couple of exceptions like Malcolm X and
>Inside Man, but in general, there's always at least one (at
>least one) glaring flaw in his movies that plays out like it
>did for Summer of Sam and it seems to stem from a gargantuan
>ego.

Yeah, Spike Lee is the only director with an ego.

LOL

And besides - even if Spike does have an ego, that
has nothing to do with this film, which was clever
and creative.

>It's not simply that Spike Lee has something to teach (or
>preach) in his stories, it's that he comes across like he
>thinks he's better than me, smarter than me, doing this for my
>own good, like he's a stuck-up professor and I should feel
>privileged to be in his class.


Judging from your post, he is smarter than you though.

Sorry to come across like a dick, but if you have a personal
problem with him, do that on your own time. That has nothing
to do with this film.

>When he can subjugate his ego and just make a movie (as with
>Inside Man) or the subject is undeniably bigger than his ego
>or he has actual reverence for (Malcolm X), he seems to be
>able to just tell a story, but those moments are far too rare
>in his output.

Odd, because people laud Tarantino for his ego. Scorcese's
ego is legendary. Spielberg's ego is also huge. I mean, I
don't know a single good filmmaker who doesn't have an ego
as large as Spike Lee.

Not to mention Spike Lee trailblazed success for black
filmmakers, and films at a time when it wasn't happening,
basically at all. He's earned the right to have a chip on
his shoulder.


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O_E: Your Super-Ego's Favorite Poster.


"I ORBITs the solar system, listenin..."

(C)Keith Murray, "Cosmic Slop"

>Sorry to come across like a dick, but if you have a personal
>problem with him, do that on your own time. That has nothing
>to do with this film.

Yeah, you did come across like a dick and it's just not worth my time to get into a discussion with someone who's going to be a dick. The fact that you acknowledge your dickishness makes me think you probably understand why one wouldn't want to do that.

It's a shame though, because in the midst of your dickishness, you were making some very interesting, discussable points.

box

"Summer of Sam" is Spike's "Jackie Brown"...the underrated gem amidst his more well-known joints.

Plus, the ending was fucked up, but not enough to make me want to cry for 2 days like "Requiem".

And "25th Hour" also doesn't get the love it deserves. I'd actually rank "Get On The Bus" higher as well.

I wasn't a huge fan of "Summer of Sam". Well made but just didn't do it for me. Then again, I'm not a fan of Jackie Brown either so maybe you're right.

I've never seen "Get on The Bus", but I must say I've always wanted to see it. The premise sounded very interesting.

I'm surprised he didn't name his kids Sal & Vinny.

I swear, no diss, at 3 AM on any given night, you'd find Spike at a public park, telling men "You can't touch me unless your name is Carmine".

At least Norton and his dad were Irish in "25th Hour", and we were touching Rosario Dawson meats.

i know that aint saying much but he's got some classic lines "I can't be a fucking whore because I'm a maaaaaan!"

I dig the movie but there's some stuff in there that doesn't make much sense. i mean did he really have to have Brody's character blowing guys in bathroom stalls for money?

I still wonder if he bases those neighborhood guys on the Dead End Kids from all those 40s movies. especially since he references them again in 25th Hour.

thumbs up tho

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9v96ZYG0Nk