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Column
William Friedkin Reintroduces 'Cruising'
by Scott Holleran

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September 6, 2007

Burbank, California—Cruising, more famous for being contentious than for being commercially viable and scheduled to premiere on DVD Sept. 18, opened in 1980. The movie, which instigated street protests in major U.S. cities, conjures an image of Al Pacino in leather. Too young to see the adult motion picture at the time, I recall that it sparked intense debate among Chicago newspaper movie critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert on their public television show, Sneak Previews. Years passed and I neither saw it nor knew why it was vilified.

Now I do. Having recently attended the American Film Institute's Hollywood screening of the United Artists picture, with an introduction by writer and director William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist), who answered audience questions, it's easy to see why it was met with outrage. Cruising is everything critical reviewers, such as Leonard Maltin, claim: fully indulgent in its subject—gay sadomasochism (S&M)—it depicts gays as inherently depraved.

The S&M subculture, gay and straight, exists and indiscriminate gay sex occurs—in raunchy private clubs and in public parks and men's' rooms, as we've seen with incidents involving pop stars and politicians. As Mr. Friedkin, accompanied by his wife, former Paramount chief Sherry Lansing, explained, the plot, based on the novel by Gerald Walker, is partly derived from a true crime in New York City, where Cruising takes place. There actually was a cop, like the policeman played by Al Pacino, designated for an undercover assignment based on his resemblance to gay serial killer victims.

But those seeking a subversive, suspenseful thriller will be disappointed. Without revealing too much, Cruising, which co-stars Paul Sorvino (Oh, God!) and Karen Allen (Raiders of the Lost Ark), switches viewpoints from a perverse murderer in mirrored sunglasses who prowls gay leather bars—where Cruising was shot—to Mr. Pacino's Steve Burns, whose immersion in gay S&M delivers him to evil. Cruising clearly equates homosexuality with death and, in the end, the implication is that gays are corrupting the world. But the lewd Cruising hides behind its leather and fails to make the case.

Allen plays the unknowing girlfriend. Powers Boothe appears as a cashier who decodes handkerchief signals for Mr. Pacino's cop. Sorvino is effective as a police captain under pressure to solve the murders before the Democratic National Convention comes to town but, while suspense builds around the killer's identity, the uneven Cruising feels heavily edited. The pre-DNA crime tale is set in that brief period after homosexuality first became openly acknowledged and discussed but before AIDS was discovered.

Al Pacino in Cruising

This is brutal stuff, though some scenes are laughable. Mr. Pacino's character walks into one bar on "precinct night" with every guy dressed like a cop engaging in some kind of undulating, choreographed orgy—Cruising is explicitly sexual and violent—and, at one point, he asks another dude: "hips or lips?"

William Friedkin, celebrating his birthday, shed light on the movie's history. Steven Spielberg was initially attached, unsuccessfully trying to pitch an adaptation of the novel for the screen, and Richard Gere was originally slated for the cop role. But Al Pacino really wanted—and, thanks to Mr. Friedkin, got—the part. The Best Picture Oscar-winning director also explained the puzzling interrogation scene in which a black cop, wearing only a jockstrap and a cowboy hat, walks in and smacks Mr. Pacino. The silent character was apparently based on a real person that NYPD used to elicit criminal confessions. Cops figured that if perpetrators protested that their confession had been coerced by a jockstrapped black cowboy, nobody would believe it.

According to the director, Warner Home Video is releasing Cruising on DVD—with a digitally remastered print, audio commentary and bonus features—because the movie ranked remarkably high in multiple choice retail surveys of titles customers wanted to see on DVD. William Friedkin also announced that his 1977 thriller Sorcerer, crushed at that summer's box office by Star Wars, will get a 30th anniversary DVD edition. He added that his gay-themed The Boys in the Band is also planned for DVD release.

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RELATED LINKS
• 11/2/04 - Sherry Lansing to Depart Paramount
• DVD - Cruising
• Scott Holleran Column Index