Cruising feels in many ways like a film one must clear their throat for before talking about – no pun intended. The tremendously controversial history of its making and release has in many ways overshadowed for years a very entertaining and ultimately really quite progressive and truthful tale of a very specific fashion of gay culture in the late 70’s and early 80’s. 

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This tale written and directed by Friedkin, from a novel by the same name from Gerard Walker, in a very loose adaptation keeping for the most part only the name and the general one line synopsis; a cop goes undercover in the gay community to track down a killer of gay men. It’s interesting to note in regards to the controversy at the time that the film was bring optioned and prepper for a very long time by Brian De Palma, who once moving on from the project would go on to take elements and insert them into Dressed to Kill. There in lies the controversy. It was very clear from the off that with both of these films, bar the current day reclamation of Cruising and the frequent rejection of Dressed, that representation on screen for the LGBT community at the time was not glowing and so in both of these cases, to make major Hollywood movies where your central LGBT figures are serial killers, is what led to the controversy of the time. But there in lies for me the chief difference between the two films, for as much as Dressed is a film I do love, it does for the most part paint its trans character as nothing but a serial killing psycho driven mad their queerness. That is so desperately not the case with Cruising, Friedkin has such a compassion and care for depicting the many truths of this world at the time, that on repeat watches the serial killer aspect for me anyway becomes to the least interesting part despite it of course being the crux of the film. Friedkin placed the film deep into the heart of the leather and BDSM underground culture of the gay scene at the time, as a matter of fact the films makes several notes that this is not all gay life, just a very specific sect, which as sensationalist and graphic as it can be at times, Friedkin directs with honesty and true depiction. There is very little to no perceived rejection of the truths of this world, nor any ostracization of the facts of the matter. It is very clear to me that with the complexities and brutalities of NYPD at the time and uniform culture of this leather scene (with one scene even depicting a precinct night, with men dressed only in police outfits), Friedkin thought it would be an intriguing background for a thriller about a killer. Pair this with the horrid multiple murders at the time in the scene that fuelled the original novel and in turn Fredkin’s conversations with the real life cop who went undercover into the scene as Al Pacino’s lead character of Steve Burns does in this film and Cruising became the compelling film it is today.

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As I have already eluded to, the actual serial killing aspect of the film is my thing of mist disinterest. Or rather shall I say the investigation and final reveal, the initial murder sequences are all naturally done very well and Friedkin makes the sequences almost Giallo in nature and always thrilling and unsettling, whilst again still being very truthful to the cruising and hook up scene of the era. But the investigation and reveal for me has always felt a little underwhelming, the film is at its best and most successful when it is with Pacino’s Burns and the ultimate arc of his character as he descends further into mental struggle as he ingratiates himself more and more into the culture and in turn possibly succumbs to his own closeted sexuality or even in some readings of the time his own violence. Pacino here is in many ways an odd choice for the film, but again, that’s what makes the film that all more interesting and complex. Pacino is not really the beauty that one would first think would be chosen to go undercover as baith in this scheme by Paul Sorvino’s chief, no, but he is the type of our killer and as aforementioned it is the fact that Pacino looks so out of place that the film’s relationship and arc with Burns is only intensified. Despite all the controversy of the time I was honestly surprised at how in common parlance un-problematic the film was. Friedkin presents with truth and honesty so many aspects of this very specific world, even shooting, editing and ultimately removing 40 minutes of extra footage in the clubs excised from the final film. Even with the Trans characters (or possibly drag prostitutes, it’s never stated), there is a level of truth and honesty in depiction, with the actors too in all accounts across the film never once giving outrageous stereotyping or the like. Fredkin’s depiction of this world and the arc of Pacino’s Burns is compelling to this day, even if in this case, the core serial killer element is not actually as interesting as the background the film Russian dolls to be it’s core via this murder mystery.

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Pair the successes of Cruising against the failures of Friedkin’s 90’s effort Jade and you’ll begin to see perhaps a vision of failed perverse fetishisation that many see Cruising as despite me feeling it is not. Hot off the heels of one of the best commercially speaking and worse creatively speaking runs a writer ever had in Hollywood, Joe Eszterhaus’s hot-streak came to an end with this Freidkin box office failure, encapsulating all the best and worst aspects of the brand of erotic thrillers he fashioned in the late 80’s and early 90’s. The best of which of course being Basic Instinct, with this of course being the worst. Despite him apparently believing the film to be one of his personal best, I firmly have to disagree and state that this may be one of Friedkin’s absolute worst. As it seems there are with so many films of this shoddy calibre with an unassuming cult status, there is an alternate directors cut that solves all of the films problems. However I seriously doubt it, for here are the issues are numerous and plentiful, the film really does paint in broad strokes and has its twists barley creep up on you, and instead just bluntly reveal themselves without a note of mystery or tension. The three central performances in the film are that of David Curuso in a pretty fun turn as a quiet and cavalier DA, caught in a bizarre lust triangle with Chazz Palminteri as a cuckold psycho with a penchant for sadness, and Linda Fiorentino as a femme fatale purely attempting to find sexual solace outside of her relationship with no aspect of murder involved. It’s an intriguing concept, but Eszterhaus’s script is so painfully boilerplate that one seriously does wonder whether we are watching a first draft. Friedkin does imbue the film with some vivid visuals to make it watchable, however does in one very particular way show how far he had fallen at this period of his career, with a series of truly terrible car chase sequences. Whereas previously Freidkin held the crown for some of the finest car chase sequences ever put to film, he now holds the crown in this film for some of the worst. The truly nauseating filming of some of these action scenes is enough make to hurl, but it is also fortunately enough to get a couple of ironic laughs out of you too. This sort of sultry, sexual thriller is out of vogue nowadays, and watching where the trend hit its rock bottom does put one in a position of understanding.

-        Thomas Carruthers