Lee Revisits 'Summer Of Sam'
Do you remember the summer of 1977? The disco scene was exploding, casual sex was still very much in vogue and a serial killer was on the loose on the sweltering streets of New York City.
He was known as the Son of Sam and claimed he was taking orders to kill from a barking dog. He killed six young people and wounded seven before police caught him on August 10 of that year.
Now, 22 years later, the story serves as a backdrop for Spike Lee's film The Summer of Sam. CBS This Morning Co-Anchor Mark McEwen reports.
Spike Lee's new film is an intense drama about how paranoia and fear take hold of a cast of characters in New York during the summer of 1977. "People think this is some cheap TV movie that came out a week after... The film is not about the Son of Sam. It is about the effect that his madness had on eight million New Yorkers that very, very hot summer," says Lee.
| David Berkowitz: The Son of Sam CBS News Productions revisits the Son of Sam case in Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer. |
In a scene from the film, Spike Lee shows how a few guys form a vigilante group, convinced that the Son of Sam lives in their neighborhood. "Everyone was a suspect, neighbors, relatives, sister, brother," Lee says.
The victims' families and the killer himself are angry with him for dredging up these old memories. Lee says there is nothing he could say that is going to make the families feel better, adding, "This is not the first film in the history of cinema based upon true life events where people were killed."
| Flashback To Summer Of Sam: Lee's new movie is not without controversy. CBS News' Bobbi Harley reports. |
Lee says he made two small changes in the film related to sex and nudity to guarantee its R rating rather than the more restrictive NC17. He says that despite all the recent cries about violence in entertainment, the guidelines for sex and nudity are stricter than for violence. The proof, he says, is that no one raised any concerns about the violence in Summer of Sam.
The film, which opens July 2, was made for Touchstone, a Disney company. If you are wondering if that's a sign that Lee is "selling out" to Hollywood, Lee says he retaine the same level of control over this film as he has had in the past.
Lee's personal memories of the summer of '77: It was that summer, when he was just 20 years old, that he decided to become a filmmaker. He spent the season traveling around the city shooting a super 8 camera, filming disco dances and neighborhood block parties.
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