July 6, 1999
Web posted at: 1:47 p.m. EDT (1747 GMT)

By Reviewer Paul Clinton

(CNN) -- The year was 1977. A record heat wave had hit New York and a serial killer known as Son of Sam was roaming the hot urban streets using a .44-caliber handgun to kill people -- mostly young women with long brown hair. Now, 22 years later, director Spike Lee's "Summer of Sam" is about that time.

Few who lived through the summer of 1977 in New York will easily forget the sweltering heat and massive power blackout followed by widespread looting. But most deeply burned into collective memory is the terror caused by the rampage of David Berkowitz, Son of Sam. I know. I was there, along with eight million others.

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After more than a dozen films, he's still nothing if not edgy and in-your-face with his stark portraits of urban America. But this time it's not a sharply focused look at the experiences of his fellow African-Americans as in "Do The Right Thing" (1989) and "Clockers" (1995). Now, he's examining the lives of a group of Italian-Americans living in a lower-middle-class neighborhood in the Bronx during the Son of Sam killings.

Lee populates his film with a stellar cast, and he's once again hit a cinematic bull's-eye. John Leguizamo, Adrien Brody, Mira Sorvino, Bebe Neuwirth, Jennifer Esposito and Patti LuPone are some of the powerful actors who deliver red-hot performances in this exceptional film.

Shot in near-documentary style, this "Summer of Sam" isn't really about Berkowitz. He now is serving more than 300 years at the maximum-security Sullivan Correctional Facility near Albany, New York. He was sentenced to six consecutive life sentences, having confessed to shooting to death six people and injuring seven.

Lee uses Berkowitz's self-confessed killing spree as a backdrop for the story of two different couples and their friends who live in a Bronx neighborhood at the heart of Berkowitz territory.

Leguizamo plays Vinny, a man with a serious "madonna-whore" complex: He puts his wife Dionna (Sorvino) on a pedestal, while trying to score with every other woman he meets.

Brody, best known for his work as Cpl.Fife in last year's "The Thin Red Line," plays Vinny's best friend Ritchie. He's just returned to the neighborhood after spending time in the East Village where he's picked up punk music, punk style and a punk attitude. This doesn't go down well with "da boys." The only two who accept the new Ritchie are Vinny and a girl named Ruby, played by Esposito. Ruby, the neighborhood "bad girl," is also an outcast.

As the naked fear and random violence build, relationships between lifelong friends begin to break down and the men in this fear-ridden neighborhood make up a list of everyone they consider suspect. They become convinced that the Son of Sam is among them. Ritchie is on the top of their hit list.

Pulsating music, unusual camera angles, washed-out backgrounds and tight close-ups mark this brilliant piece of filmmaking. Love him or hate him, Lee is a man with a definite point of view and he's captured the mood and the time period of 1977 in New York.

Lee's biggest fault as a movie maker may be his tendency to pack too much plot into his films. His camera angles and his attention span always seem to be changing. But this style usually leaves you wanting more and keeps a viewer interested. Better too much plot than too little.

This movie sizzles with the heat generated by the performances of Leguizamo, Brody and especially Sorvino. From the punk club CBGB to the legendary Studio 54, from the sexual mecca of Plato's Retreat to the baking streets of the Bronx, the viewer is taken to a time when New York City seemed ready to explode.

The film is violent and sexual, but it's also an exploration of human nature, and of how easily the beast in many of us can rear its ugly head.

"Summer of Sam" is rated R (for both sex and violence) with a running time of 136 minutes.