Many people throughout the world have been terrorized but in the 1970s many events occurred that changed the image of New York City for a long time. Though the movie Summer of Sam by Spike Lee didn’t completely portray the aspects of the event realistically but it did however showed how people were behaving because of this serial killer, the life in NYC in the 70s, and how the press was treating this event. There are many intriguing levels to how realistic this film depicts the life of NYC in the 1970s. It presents the integration of economical, political, and social class to how NYC was back then. Through this film the audience should understand what was missing that created the exact image to how things were going back when everything was going regressing.
Realism defines many parts of the movie. It forms a relationship within the film, this allows the audience to relate with real events that is being portrayed in the movie to real life events. Realism in the movie isn’t complete because we don’t get to see the actual dirty streets and the abandoned buildings. We don’t get a feel of anything other than life amongst the Italian neighborhoods. We don’t get to see the dirty subway stations and the graffiti everywhere. Since the 1960s things got complicated, businesses were decreasing and crime was increasing. In July 13th, 1977 there was a black out in New York City. It took a day for Con-Edison to fix the problem so everyone created a riot. In the article “Bushwick: Then and Now” by Eleanor Barkhorn, she stated how “Arson had claimed over 1,000 buildings and the '77 blackout led to violence and looting that ruined hundreds of businesses on Broadway”. This gives an understanding to how hectic it was and how people were going senseless. The mass looting in the streets of New York City led to people stealing things from the stores and organizing arson. This falls under the economical status of NYC at that time. It may be certain that if the economical standards back then were in a good state people would’ve not behaved so barbaric. People who were involved in the looting were of tawdry style be due to the looting happening in places like Harlem, Bushwick and South Bronx. In a very detailed article Joyce Purnick describes how some things happened. She mentioned some steps of Mayor Beame and the hectic chaotic crowd that wondered in the city. Purnick declared that“Only later did we learn about the extent of the chaos and looting in the South Bronx, Harlem and in Bushwick.”. the conditions of the subways were a major disappointment and during the blackout many people were stuck in trains. however the train alone was just disastrous, and “The rapid transit infrastructure of NYC in the 1970s was suffering from the effects of ‘deferred maintenance’ initiatives started in the 1960s.” (Mark S. Feinman).
As the realism of the movie is in mere details, it is a obvious thought that not everything happened in accordance to realism in NYC without the movie. As many people know, the 1970s were of nothing but troubled people that accompanied troubled events. What the movie didn’t show was how stagflation was a situation that stagnated NYC in a financial form. Stagflation is when the inflation rate of a country is increasing and the growth of the economy is decreasing. During this time Richard Nixon was the president and a major impact was the oil crises in 1973. This led to increase in prices, also as the desperate need of lower class people to act very irrational. Along with the economy dragging people, the summer was another factor that led to many problems in the 1970s. Not only did the looting play a major effect but everything else before ‘77 was just an explosion awaiting to happen. Summer of 1977 was just the drop that overflowed the cup and although there are crimes in other seasons, nevertheless summer is when people tend to become more wild. The heat has a strong impact on how people behave and this became one of the many problems in the 1970s. People were already being vulgar and imprudent and in addition the crime wasn’t helping. The need for employment and the basic needs to survive drove people mad. To then have a serial killer out on the loose only made things worse. People were going crazy over overpriced objects and necessities.
With the fiscal crisis at hand in 1975 and the oil crisis the Midwest left in 1973, political views withing the Democratic was rampant. Mayor Beame had major competition during the last term. He had six opponents and Edward I. Koch was one of them. “the blackout served him well. He radiated indignation, accused Mr. Beame of losing control of the streets, said he should have asked the governor to call in the National Guard. “ mentioned Joyce. In some aspects crisis in a certain area can affect a politician whether the effect is good or bad (Purnick). Nevertheless, NYC made its way through the blackout, the dirty streets and the political confrontations.
The political view tied in with the economical status of NYC back then. Ford who was the president who was paying attention to foreign matters. When Beame asked the Federal for support Ford mentioned to the City to “drop dead” mentioned in the Daily News :The Bronx is Burning: The politics of turmoil”. But then again it was very controversial due to the economic depleting because of lack of foreign raw materials. As stated before, the oil crises became a huge problem and in order to start somewhere it was best to begin helping the economy in order for the people back in the 70s could receive employment. With the economy rising the crime could perhaps decrease, and that was the hope many people then shared. As far as music in the city; CBGB was a punk rock venue in which a lot of young teenagers went to express their feelings. They created riots amongst each other in order to escape from the authorities. There was always a band on set singing or screaming about the unfortunate events in life and how they’re misunderstood. These were major events that took place in NYC which is non existent today.
Political views in Summer of Sam is very stern because of the large community. Everyone obviously is out on a hunt for this killer. People barely sleep and the press continues to stress this issue. They provide him with various names such as the .44 Caliber Killer or The Son of Sam. Everyone due to their same ethnicity share the same common emotion of fear and the same common belief of justice towards this horrendous killer that has terrorized NYC. In the movie the only political view was based on the killer, anything else wasn’t being showed because the movie centralized on this killer and the fear he brought to the neighborhood.
With social class there was the obvious fact that more than 50% of the neighborhood in the Bronx were Italian people. Many of them were lower class people who had a lot of interpersonal issues. Many of them dealt with drugs such as Vinny and the rest of his friends. As seen one of his friends sells drugs meanwhile the other mouths homophobic remarks. The realism of the movie mostly assembled around Vinny and his Wife Diana. As the topic of infidelity doesn’t age, Spike Lee made sure to correlate Vinny’s infidelity with witnessing who the real killer was. In the film there was a shot in which shows when Vinny and his friends are at a dead end, his friends assume that Vinny saw the real killer. Vinny gets scared and demands of them to not spread things around or else he would be face with The Son of Sam. It seems as if people then and as well as today are in fear, if you were to see something most likely you wouldn’t say anything. It is how things work, due to fear of your own death people are willing to keep things quiet.
Ratting out your local killer isn’t the only fear people faced in this movie. Also the increase in crime. The fact that females had to change their hair color due to the killer’s personal preference of shoulder length brown hair young females. It shows how fragile the human mind is, the fact that one single person could terrorized a whole city. It doesn’t deal with a social class but with humanity as a whole. As New York City grew in fear of the killer’s inhumane act, the killer grew fonder of fearing the city that never sleeps. Within the Italian Americans being different doesn’t cut it. Being homosexual also isn’t right as well. People in the movie mainly focused on catching the killer, attacking those who differ from them, using drugs, and having a lot of sex. In certain sequences a portrayal of certain clubs and hot spots for the locals such as CBGB which was in Saint Marks and Studio 54. In these hot spots you can see the night life settle into this fascinating trend of drug users and sex addicts. People of fun, as well as people of trouble.
As a part of economical situation, one thing that didn’t make sense was how Vinny and his Wife lived in a middle class home that your average hair dresser and waitress could never afford. In the perspective of today looking at the price of where they resided, the rent must’ve been cheaper but to actually acknowledge how much they would’ve gotten pay it, it doesn’t make sense their middle class apartment. Also, along with the apartment there are places and cars in which they visit and own. Both of which it would be hard for them to afford with the job title they both possess.
With economical struggles, social class was a major part in this. In the Bronx which was where the movie was located. Aside from the murder victims which are scattered across the boroughs, the Bronx played an important setting in this movie. They showed abuse against homosexuals, and Hispanics. Scenes in which they were pulling a Puerto Rican from his car because he seemed like a suspect. Things like this were going on back then. In which people began to go against each other and had forgotten to use logic. Instead, they were pointing fingers and making matters worse.
People then became more frightened because they knew that now that he had killed a young female that had blonde hair, they were not safe anymore. The hunger of the cops and detectives to catch this killer grew more and more. And every time they wasted more money in order to catch him. The crime was still rising and people were still being vulgar. Prostitutes were still on the corner and subway trains were nastier than ever. This is something that Spike Lee left out, that even after they had caught him it took a while for NYC to wipe out the rugged look that hovered over the city. The addition to infidelity was just a symbol of entertainment, however, there were a lot unfaithfulness going around. Women were dropping dimes on their husbands due to infidelity on their husbands behalf and vice versa.
In the 70s not only disco was in style but also the movie Star Wars and this is one element that the director missed out. Back then they would attend theaters and after the couples would go into the love drive and suddenly the killer will slowly chose his victims, or even after night clubs. As far as the weather goes, even today when summer is approaching people tend to get over excited. The director did a good depiction of the hot weather and how people were out in the streets in titillating outfits. Women then were degraded because of their positions in life. They were still being looked down upon and many of them we see in films that are related to the 1970s are mostly prostitutes. In this film the weather is a symbol to all the dark things that could happen and being that this was a real story in NYC it only portrays the danger and the careless attitude many New Yorkers carry.
Drugs alone is a major problem, the main thing that maybe created a hole in NYCs society back in the 1970s. Drugs alone is a major idea however, the train station in 1999 which was the year that Spike Lee delivered and created the film Summer of Sam. Also in the summer of 1977 a killer was on the loose however in NYC the West Nile like virus was working its way through Queens and Manhattan. Many people feared for their lives.
Though many things differed in 1977 than from 1999, it is obvious that social class has come a long way and the economical crisis has changed from the 70s to the 90s. It still portrays that the film didn’t cover the complete aspects of what exactly happened in New York City during the summer of 1977, however Spike Lee did use a number of cinematic elements to depict the city’s frightful sleepless nights.
Feinman S, Mark. "The New York City Transit Authority in the 1970s". November 2002. Web 31 May 2011. <http://www.nycsubway.org/articles/history-nycta1970s.html>
Siemaszko, Corky. “The Political of Turmoil”. The Daily News: The Bronx is Burning. August 29, 1977. Web 31 May 2011.<http://www.nydailynews.com/features/bronxisburning/battle-for-the-city/index.html>
Purnick, Joyce. “The ‘77 Blackout: Inside the Command Center”. July 11, 2007. Web 31 May 2011. <http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/11/the-77-blackout-inside-the-command-center/>
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