Cruising ** (1980, Al Pacino, Paul Sorvino, Karen Allen) – Classic Movie Review 2,974

William Friedkin’s infamous 1980 thriller film Cruising stars Al Pacino as New York City police detective Steve Burns, who goes undercover among the gay leather set to catch an S&M serial killer preying on gay men. 

Writer-director William Friedkin’s infamous 1980 thriller film Cruising stars Al Pacino as New York City police detective Steve Burns, who gets down and dirty undercover among the gay leather set to catch an S&M murderer, a serial killer preying on gay men.

Based on the novel by Gerald Walker, this pre-AIDS crime thriller is intriguing but highly suspect and nasty. The story is based on a series of real-life murders of homosexual men that took place in New York City. 

In 1977 and 1978, New York gay men were terrorised by a series of ‘bag murders’ in which six victims were mutilated and dismembered, their remains wrapped in black plastic bags and dumped in the Hudson River. On September 14 1977, film critic Addison Verrill was beaten and stabbed to death in his New York apartment. Paul Bateson, a 38-year-old X-ray technician, was convicted of the homicide on March 5 1979 and given 20 years to life in prison. While in custody, he boasted of killing other men ‘for fun’ but was never charged and the ‘bag murders’ remain unsolved. 

Admittedly, Cruising is well acted, particularly by a scary Pacino, atmospheric as a New York movie and tense as a thriller. And, for better or worse, it does offer a lot of disturbing detail of the New York underground S&M gay sub-culture of the day quite unknown to most ordinary suburban lives.

It caused quite a scandal in 1980 and offended gays picketed the London West End cinema that premiered it – understandably, since its picture of the gay community is pretty darned offensive. In America, gay activists distributed hundreds of whistles to members of the city’s gay community and encouraged them to spoil exterior filming on New York streets by blowing whistles loudly if they spotted film crews, costing lots of money in lost time and post-dubbing.

Also in the cast are Paul Sorvino as police Captain Edelson, Karen Allen as the hero’s girlfriend Nancy, Richard Cox, Don Scardino, Joe Spinell, Jay Acovone, Randy Jurgensen, Barton Heyman, Gene Davis, Sonny Grosso, Larry Atlas, Allan Miller, Edward O’Neil, Michael Aronin, James Remar, William Russ, Mike Starr, Steve Inwood, Leo Burmester, Charles Dunlap, and Powers Booth.

Two of the gay bars featured in the film – Mine Shaft and Eagle’s Nest – eventually barred Friedkin. He did some of his research for the film by attending gay bars dressed in only a jockstrap.

Friedkin also made that other lively milestone (or, depending on point of view, possibly millstone?) of gay oppressive voyeurism, The Boys in the Band in 1970.

William Friedkin (August 29, 1935 – August 7, 2023) is the Oscar-winning director of The French Connection (1971) and the Oscar-nominated director of The Exorcist (1973).

His other films include The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky’s (1968), The Boys in the Band (1970), Sorcerer (1977), The Brink’s Job (1978), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in LA (1985), Bug (2006) and Killer Joe (2011).

http://derekwinnert.com/the-boys-in-the-band-1970-leonard-frey-kenneth-nelson-reuben-greene-cliff-gorman-frederick-combs-robert-la-tourneaux-laurence-luckinbill-classic-movie-review-2973/

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2,974

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com