Cinema Retro Editor-in-Chief LEE PFEIFFER takes a look at the new DVD edition of director William Friedkin's most controversial film.
When I was a kid way back in 1969, my friend's mother took her two young sons to the movies in an attempt to see Midnight Cowboy. When the person inside the box-office pointed out the X rating and refused to sell her tickets for her kids, the mom blurted out, "Why not? My boys love westerns!" One can only hope that equally well-meaning but naive moms don't put Warner Home Entertainment's new special DVD edition of director William Friedkin's Cruising in their kid's Christmas stockings because they think it will call to mind episodes of the old Love Boat series. The film caused a firestorm while it was still in production and was no less controversial upon its release in 1980. Unless you literally came to the city on the back of a hay wagon, you're probably aware that Cruising is not a promotional film for the Royal Caribbean line. Rather, it is a grim and often shocking story about a series of gruesome murders that takes place in New York City's infamous gay leather bars. The film is ostensibly a standard crime melodrama. Al Pacino is a young cop who enthusiastically accepts a top secret assignment from his boss (Paul Sorvino) to drop out of society and go undercover in the bar scene in order to solve the murders. Pacino initially views the mission as a way to fast track his way to the rank of detective. However, he soons finds himself haunted by the old axiom, "Be careful what you wish for - you just may get it."
In speaking to William Friedkin recently, I candidly told him that when
I saw the film upon its initial release I found it loathsome. Yet, upon
viewing it again on DVD, I was mesmerized by the subtleties of the
script and the entire style of the movie. Friedkin speculated that
perhaps I had simply matured along with my ability to judge the
complexities of films such as this. That seems a fair guess, but I
would argue that certain films can almost never be appreciated with one
viewing. They are designed to be seen repeatedly because, if properly
made, the viewer can discover new aspects that continue to enrich the
experience. Cruising is one such film. Friedkin told me his main influence for the movie was Antonioni's 1966 film, Blow Up -
for some a pretentious bore and for others (including myself) a
thoroughly unique cinematic experience that improves with every
viewing. Even Friedkin doesn't argue that Cruising succeeds on the same level as Blow Up -
but if you can bare the gut wrenching experience of watching it more
than once, you might find he has succeeded in crafting a fascinating
film that - like the movie that inspired it - leaves the viewer to use
their imagination to answer the many open-ended plot elements that
remain at the story's conclusion. Like any such work, each viewer might
have an entirely different take on what they have seen.