William Friedkin never quite returned to the heights of his early masterpieces The French Connection and The Exorcist, but in 1980 he plunged to new depths with Cruising. This thoroughly unsympathetic cop thriller set in the underbelly of New York's S&M scene seems to be rather over-impressed with its own courage in dealing with a hitherto taboo subject. The problem with Cruising is that the subject matter is treated terribly superficially this is little more than a murder mystery, with scenes of excessive sleaze and gay bar activities tossed in to stir up some controversy. One almost feels that Friedkin wasn't happy with the idea of a simple, straightforward cop thriller, so he came up with all the gay scene trappings to add spice to his film. He uses gay characters and gay lifestyles merely to shock us, but never really gets down to making a serious statement about his sexual and political intentions.
Dismembered corpses are found in the Hudson River in New York. The police believe that the deaths are the work of a serial killer who is preying upon gay men, luring them from gay bars in the city, raping them, then killing them and throwing their cut-up remains into the water. Captain Edelson (Paul Sorvino) of the New York Police Department appoints rookie cop Steve Burns (Al Pacino) to crack the case. Burns a straight guy with a steady girlfriend - is approximately the same build as the victims. Edelson hopes that he will go undercover in the gay underworld scene and attract a little attention upon himself perhaps even lure the killer into the open. Determined initially to take on the case to win promotion, Burns gradually finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into the unfamiliar gay culture. His relationship with girlfriend Nancy (Karen Allen) suffers, and he finds himself uncertain of his own sexual identity and orientation.
The film aroused a large degree of protest when released, partly because it was ahead of its time and partly because gay activists were afraid that the film might set back their cause. Sometimes such controversy inadvertently generates extra box office for a film, but in the case of Cruising the film was a flop. Pacino gives an acceptable performance as the emotionally and sexually bewildered cop, though the script does him few favours. In a city as big as New York, it seems almost unthinkable that an undercover cop could be chosen to ensnare a serial killer merely because he is roughly the same build as one of the killer's preferred victims. It is such an unconvincing plot point, yet so important to the whole story, that it wrecks the film's credibility. On the plus side, the gay bar scenes seem fairly accurate, but less agreeable is the way some of the anti-gay characters who people the film are presented too over-the-top (for example, the police interrogator who assaults a gay man in his custody whilst wearing a jock-strap and cowboy hat.) The film's climax also sits awkwardly, especially the way that it hints that maybe Pacino himself has committed one of the murders. If we pursue this line of thought, are we to assume that the film is saying that indulging in gay activities will ultimately turn you into a killer? Cruising is a confused, repellent thriller. It treads ground that many movie makers are afraid to step upon, but sadly it never tells us much about the places and people it attempts to explore and emerges as a somewhat disappointing film.
Dismembered corpses are found in the Hudson River in New York. The police believe that the deaths are the work of a serial killer who is preying upon gay men, luring them from gay bars in the city, raping them, then killing them and throwing their cut-up remains into the water. Captain Edelson (Paul Sorvino) of the New York Police Department appoints rookie cop Steve Burns (Al Pacino) to crack the case. Burns a straight guy with a steady girlfriend - is approximately the same build as the victims. Edelson hopes that he will go undercover in the gay underworld scene and attract a little attention upon himself perhaps even lure the killer into the open. Determined initially to take on the case to win promotion, Burns gradually finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into the unfamiliar gay culture. His relationship with girlfriend Nancy (Karen Allen) suffers, and he finds himself uncertain of his own sexual identity and orientation.
The film aroused a large degree of protest when released, partly because it was ahead of its time and partly because gay activists were afraid that the film might set back their cause. Sometimes such controversy inadvertently generates extra box office for a film, but in the case of Cruising the film was a flop. Pacino gives an acceptable performance as the emotionally and sexually bewildered cop, though the script does him few favours. In a city as big as New York, it seems almost unthinkable that an undercover cop could be chosen to ensnare a serial killer merely because he is roughly the same build as one of the killer's preferred victims. It is such an unconvincing plot point, yet so important to the whole story, that it wrecks the film's credibility. On the plus side, the gay bar scenes seem fairly accurate, but less agreeable is the way some of the anti-gay characters who people the film are presented too over-the-top (for example, the police interrogator who assaults a gay man in his custody whilst wearing a jock-strap and cowboy hat.) The film's climax also sits awkwardly, especially the way that it hints that maybe Pacino himself has committed one of the murders. If we pursue this line of thought, are we to assume that the film is saying that indulging in gay activities will ultimately turn you into a killer? Cruising is a confused, repellent thriller. It treads ground that many movie makers are afraid to step upon, but sadly it never tells us much about the places and people it attempts to explore and emerges as a somewhat disappointing film.