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.
Cruising has not lost its power to shock after almost thirty years. When the film went into production, gay activist groups tried to shut down filming. As is the norm with most knee-jerk protests, the aggrieved parties had never read the script nor seen even a minute of the footage being shot. Because the action was set in the subterranean world of the leather and S&M scene, the concern was that, at a time when gay rights were finally beginning to make inroads in society, Friedkin's movie might present a setback by giving people the impression that the average gay person was part of this sordid social scene. When the movie finally came out, the reaction was no less volatile -even though Friedkin makes no value judgments of any kind about the lifestyle. He simply presents a realistic depiction of what goes on in these bars and clubs as a logical background for the murder story. Critics denounced the film and many wondered how, even after presenting fifty different cuts of the movie to the ratings board, Friedkin had avoided an X rating. Emotions ran so high that few critics showed the ability to judge the movie on its own merits. Consequently, it quickly vanished from view and has never been widely seen since, though there have been previous VHS releases.
In fact, the murder mystery aspect of the movie is simply what Hitchcock would call The MacGuffin - a plot device that actually cloaks a deeper meaning to the story. In this case, the real storyline centers on Pacino's rapid immersion into the gay leather scene. We know he's straight as an arrow because in the early stages of the film, we see he has a cute girlfriend (Karen Allen) and enjoys a vibrant sex life with her. However, once he is on assignment, Pacino has to not only talk the talk but walk the walk if he is to fit in with the bizarre new world he must inhabit. He's a quick learner, but the leather scene offers a language and rituals all its own. Amusingly, he makes a social faux pas by wearing the wrong handkerchief in his back pocket, thus giving out an erroneous signal about his interest in "water sports". It's one of the few mildly amusing moments in an otherwise unrelentlessly grim story. Pacino seems to take to his unsavory assignment all too enthusiastically. Is he merely being the ultimate police professional or is he beginning to become entranced by a lifestyle he would otherwise seem to disdain? Regardless of what you think of the film, one has to admire the sheer bravado Pacino shows by playing what must have been one of the most challenging roles of his career. This is no cop-out performance: Pacino immerses himself in a way few other actors would even consider. In one scene, Pacino goes home with a person he feels may have a lead on the serial killer. Thinking he needs assistance, police officers barge into the apartment only to find Pacino's detective about to take his role playing to the ultimate conclusion: he's stark naked and trussed up in bed about to be willingly sodomized. The question lingers: was this in the name of business or pleasure? It's inconceivable that any contemporary leading man today would allow themselves to be shown so vulnerably onscreen.
The story unfolds in a dimly lit world that is populated by men who lead otherwise unexceptional lives. The film points out a reality of life: that we don't know the innermost secrets of those around us. By day, the bar patrons must work largely in non-descript jobs. At night, however, they inhabit a world that is either horrendously threatening or perversely exciting, depending upon your point of view. Friedkin holds nothing back in the bar scenes. He hired actual patrons to carry on as usual and simply shot the action as it was unfolding. It's not for the timid, and as Paul Sorvino's character points out early in the film, the S&M scene is so unto itself that it's as foreign to most mainstream gays as it is to straight people. The clubs depicted in Cruising will seem surrealistic to younger New Yorkers. The city has undergone a renaissance in recent years, but in those days this was the way it was. The hell of the AIDS crisis that arose a couple of years later ultimately ended the more overt exhibitionism of these leather bars, but if they are smaller in number today, they certainly still exist in many major cities. Perhaps the most controversial scene in Cruising has Pacino blandly observing a "bottom" about to be "fisted" by his leather-clad "top" amidst the howling soundtrack of blaring rock music inside the dimly lit club. The scene is brief but there is little doubt what is happening - and if you have to ask what "fisting" is, as the old saying goes, "You can look it up." Such scenes give Cruising a sense of realism and occasionally surrealism that overshadows the essential weakness of the plot. At the end of the movie, it would appear the murders have been solved - or have they? Is it the work of one man or multiple killers - and the final sequence leaves an unsettling suggestion that Pacino's immersion into the leather scene might have had shocking consequences even he could not have foreseen.
One of the criticisms leveled at the film is that it implies homosexuality is like a disease and that it can be "caught" and cause the infected person to radically change their lifestyle. This seems overstated.The movie is quite obviously not trying to make a social statement. Rather, it is a psychological study of a single individual -with occasional glimpses into the equally confused lives of the suspects and victims pertaining to the murder case. Friedkin provides so many clues and red herrings that by the movie's end you are not certain that what you think you saw actually occurred. Characters are introduced in a tantalizing manner but conventional answers about their background and motives are rarely provided. Is that really a fellow police officer Pacino glimpses cruising the leather bar circuit? Who is the older man the main murder suspect meets in the park? How does the final murder raise more questions than it answers? Why does Pacino's girlfriend feel compelled to dress in his leather "disguise" at the film's conclusion? Who is the shadowy figure seen walking into a bar in in the final scene? Like any good director, Friedkin provides no easy answers. Cruising is like watching an episode of The Prisoner that takes place in Dante's Inferno.
Aside from Al Pacino's understated, but remarkable performance, the film boasts an impressive cast with Paul Sorvino particularly good as the world-weary police captain who simply wants an end to this string of murders - at any cost. Don Scardino is excellent as one of the few mainstream gay men Pacino is able to befriend in his new lifestyle and Richard Cox makes a charismatic main suspect in the murders. The movie also boasts an innovative and often unsettling score by Jack Nitzsche and impressive camerawork by James Contner, who succeeded in his goal of making a black and white film in color. The interiors of the bars must have been extraordinarily difficult to shoot and he perfectly captures the ominous feel of the underground bar scene.
In the years since Cruising's initial release, it seems to have been accepted in the gay community on its own merits, perhaps due to the fact that it has become apparent that Friedkin was not using the movie to advocate a moralistic or judgmental point of view. There are those who even look at the film as a fond reminder of the last, carefree days of a hedonistic but once seemingly harmless lifestyle that was soon to fall victim to AIDS. One has to wonder, however, just how much advancement the image of gays has made in the film industry. Where once gay characters were virtually avoided altogether, today they are an omnipresent force in TV and film - but generally presented in the same condescending way- you know, the flamboyant next door neighbor who pops in every few seconds to share some hilarious pearls of wisdom with his straight friends. Of course, the more outrageous their demeanor, the wiser they are, with drag queens espousing the kind of philosophical outlooks on life that even Sophocles would envy. Gay characters now suffer the same fate as that of the Native Americans: you can almost never see an unsympathetic character presented, 'lest someone accuse the producers of being intolerant. We know a corner has really been turned when mainstream America accepts TV series and films in which the leading roles just happen to be gay.
Watching Cruising today is still an unsettling reminder of New York City at a time when it was seemingly headed for an abyss. Soaring crime, racial tensions and filthy streets all conspired to provide a social backdrop for films like Death Wish, Taxi Driver and Cruising. Happily, the amazing turnaround that the city underwent in the 1990s make the era of these films seem like a distant memory. Yet, the New York of that time inspired some of the most compelling urban dramas of the 1970s and 1980s. Cruising, which was unfairly maligned by short-sighted viewers like myself who were only interested in a conventional murder mystery, can now finally be reevaluated and seen as the complex and mesmerizing work that it is. Like Friedkin's other unfairly maligned film of the era, Sorcerer, it has only improved with age. But be warned: to fully appreciate this film, you should be prepared to see it several times - and it remains a roller coaster ride straight into hell.
THE DVD
Warners has done a first rate job with it's deluxe edition of Cruising. The film's negative suffered from neglect for decades and had virtually deteriorated. The restoration efforts have paid off brilliantly - if you've only seen it on VHS, you haven't seen it at all. The film takes place primarily in the shadows which rendered the action on the VHS version into an indistinguishable blur.Here, the murky interiors come through in all their sordid glory. The extras include a director's commentary by Friedkin, who gives fascinating and highly detailed insights into the making of the film. There are also three new featurettes by the ubiquitous Laurent Bouzeraut, who seems to have a monopoly on producing special features for the major studios. The featurettes don't shy away from the more lurid aspects of the film and provide engrossing facts about the protests that the film met during production and upon release. Unfortunately, neither Al Pacino or Paul Sorvino is present on these documentaries, but Friedkin and producer Jerry Weintraub provide a wealth of ancedotes and are assisted by the technicians and supporting actors. This release also includes the movie's original trailer which only hinted at the film's shocking content.
COMING SOON: EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH WILLIAM FRIEDKIN
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