My Review of Cruising (1980)

 

Written And Directed by William Friedkin

Steve: "There's a lot you don't know about me."

This film was on my list for a while to rewatch, especially after doing a recent rewatch of American Horror Story: NYC. To say this happened to be a movie with a very mixed reception within the gay community would be an understatement. It's not exactly an affirming movie of sorts.

In fact, at the time of it's release and based on a novel from 1970 of the same name, Cruising was a movie largely criticised for it's misrepresentation of the BDSM community. Have watched it properly today, it's not hard to see where those criticisms stem from.

Saying that, in spite of its poor representation, it's also a vital piece of gay cinema, focusing on a serial killer targeting gay men and an undercover cop out to stop the killer. Of course, there's also a rather strange ending and the cop in question getting a crash course into a world they otherwise would've been perfectly oblivious to had they not been picked for this particular assignment.

The cop being Steve Burns (Al Pacino), a fairly average guy with a nice girlfriend named Nancy (Karen Allen)  but he has ambitions to be a detective. It was something his boss, Captain Edelstein (Paul Sorvino) was able to play on as Steve relocated to the Meatpacking District in order to scope out the killer.

While Steve poorly try to integrate himself into the gay community and night scene (his cluelessness somewhat sticking out like a sore thumb in various scenes), the only connection he managed to make was being friends with playwright Ted Bailey (Don Scardino) while basically pissing off everyone else.

As Steve tried to find the killer, he falsely believed a headstrong waiter named Skip Lee (Jay Acovone) was the killer, only for a rather unusual style interrogate involving a big cowboy slapping the shit out of Skip to prove otherwise. However the killer did make their presence known as the movie came to its odd conclusion.

The killer of course being a schizophrenic musical student named Stuart Richards (Richard Cox) who ended up getting stabbed by Steve in self defence before being arrested for the murders of the movie. What's odd about the movie's ending was watching a newly promoted to detective Steve back at his girlfriend's apartment, finishing off his shaving and staring at the camera, indicating something darker about him than when the movie started with him.

- The victims of the movie included Loren Lukas (Arnaldo Santana), Eric Rossman (Larry Atlas) and Martino (Steve Inwood). Ted would also end up dead with his roommate Gregory (James Remar) falsely accused of it.

- The source material for this movie was a book of the same name by The New York Times magazine editor Gerard Walker. though the protagonist in that was called John Lynch.

- The legacy of this movie has included some of Robert Mapplethorpe's work as wel as the documentary Interior: Leather Bar.

- Chronology: 1970s New York. At one point, Steve mentions being from the Bronx.

Cruising has certainly earned it's mixed reputation for gay cinema but it's a fascinating movie, albeit compounded by a rather frustrating ending. Still though, a great central performance from Al Pacino does make it a must see. 

Rating: 7 out of 10