Cruising

In honor of Mr. Friedkin, who passed earlier this week.

The controversy was thick for 1980's CRUISING even before director William Friedkin rolled cameras in NYC's Greenwich Village.  The film, loosely adapted from Gerald Walker's book of the same name by Friedkin, follows a cop who goes undercover in the world of S&M/bondage and leather bars to catch a serial killer who targets homosexual men.  So vociferous against this project was the gay community that many gathered in the streets to disrupt production by making enough noise to necessitate some serious ADR later on.   I read that some protesters also used mirrors on rooftops to mess with lighting.  

Al Pacino plays Steve Burns, an NYPD officer who is recruited for said undercover mission as his features resemble that of the killer's victims. What unfolds is a fairly standard tale of the deep cover lawman who gets too deep and begins to lose his way, possibly even his identity.  You've seen it many, many times before, and probably far more convincingly than here.  Given the relative novelty of the culture CRUISING depicts, this could've been a really fascinating movie.  And it is, as far as how Friedkin covers this world, unfamiliar to most viewers.  The atmosphere is extremely vivid and almost makes the film feel like a fly on the wall documentary at times.  The director was able to shoot in some real locations, and the result is the sort of texture rarely duplicated on a soundstage.   For this alone, the movie earns some cred.

But everything else is off.   Pacino never convinces.  Not as a cop, and not as a man plagued by an identity crisis, though his character repeatedly says as much.   He seems distracted here; this is far from his best work.  Karen Allen plays Burns' girlfriend Nancy, and her scenes feel truncated and incomplete.  Like pieces are missing from this movie. Result - this isn't much of a cop drama or a psychological thriller.  A lot of the blame falls on Friedkin's screenplay, which has ideas of interest but never develops anything.  I read that many compromises (and cuts) were made for United Artists to agree to release the picture.  It shows.  While there are some provocative moments here and there, everything feels distressingly tame. 

One curious element is the appearance of the murderer.  Played by different actors.  Suggesting that maybe there is more than one assailant?

Some viewers found another element particularly offensive and distasteful - the film's apparent equating of multiple stab wounds in the back (the killer's preferred method) to gay sex.   It is certainly a jumping off point for discussion for those so inclined.