Cruising (Deluxe Edition)

Body parts are found in the rivers around NYC while a serial killer is hacking up men that frequent hardcore S&M gay leather bars. Desperate to close two unsavory cases (and not caring whether they are truly linked or not) top cop Paul Sorvino sends in rookie Al Pacino (who fits the victim profile) to lure the killer out of the shadows. The case seems to have an effect on Pacino's character, but director William Friedkin is far too objective, letting the unsavory events unfold without allowing the viewer to become emotionally involved in them, so it all seems shock for shock's sake. This movie was extremely controverisal when first released and (judging from the polarized reviews here) still packs a powerful and unnerving punch. Recommended for those that want a dark and disturbing ride.


PUT IT OUT ON DVD !!!   August 3, 2006
S.L.S (Ontario Canada)
17 out of 21 found this review helpful

I saw this movie when it originally came out
and I was blown away by it.I got sick of waiting
for it to come to dvd so I transferred it onto
a blank disc just so it wouldn't deteriorate any
further.
How do I begin to describe this movie.When it
first came out it shocked both the gay and
straight community.I can understand the shock
of the straight community and the anger of the
gay community.
It was the 1980's and most gays were in and
not out of the closet.They needed positive images
of themselves to be projected to the straights.
So far there had been The Boys in the Band (1970)
and Le Cage Aux Folles ( 1979).So from these two
movies,gays were either suicidally unhappy or
limp wristed fruity tuities.And then along comes
Cruising.To state at the beginning of the movie
that it is not representative of the entire gay
community was a political move engedered to make
the gays less angry about it.It failed miserably.
Here's why.A whack job is knocking off gay men
in leather bars.( straights were probably saying
so what's wrong with that and what's a leather bar).
Al Pacino a straight cop is asked to infiltrate
the gay community posing as a gay leather freak.
The longer Pacino spends time in this sub culture
the stranger he acts with his girlfriend.He also
seems to be losing touch with his own reality.
The scenes in the leather bar are as scary as hell.
Scenes with f*** F****** and every one taking poppers,
along with the coloured hankerchief signals is enough
to turn most straights into anti-gays if they weren't
already.( I must say however that Pacino trying to
dance in the leather bar scene is hysterically funny)
In the end Pacino really loses it and kills someone.
I guess that's what happens to straights when they
try to enter the gay community. ( I'm joking)
Why did I like this movie?Because it did give a
true portrayal of the leather scene sub culture.
It wasn't one of those black water melon movies
that make todays black people cringe at.
Al Pacino does give a compelling performance of
a man who is losing himself in this sub culture
life style.
Is this movie worth seeing ? DEFINATELY

BRING IT OUT ON DVD !!!


CRUISING CHANGED AL PACINO'S MIND ABOUT THE GAY LIFE   December 8, 2004
Oliver Pennington (New York, New York United States)
15 out of 20 found this review helpful

After CRUISING came out, I saw the author of the original book interviewed on a NY television news show. He was as confused as most of the audience who saw the film. "It doesn't make any sense," he said. "They cut out the principle parts of my book and bowed to pressure. It's a mess."

I went to see CRUISING at a huge theatre on Broadway and saw it with a packed house. Some guys I personally knew were in the film (I was supposed to audition but had to leave town because Mommy was ill). I didn't dislike the movie, per se, I just don't like to be blind-folded and led down a dark "cul de sac." This movie was mostly a tease: is Al Pacino getting turned on by all the sex he's witnessing, or, is he just amazed that good-looking gay men, most of whom are as masculine as straight guys, are actually doing these things? The Central Park, Village and other cruising activity was very realistic and ominous.

Pacino was in a rather dull, "let's-eat-and-watch-television" type of relationship and was suddenly thrusted into the dark underworld of leather bars and anonymous sex. It was obvious that the Pacino character was "interested" in the raunchy goings on at the underground haunts. He really got caught up in the scene filmed at The Bar in the East Village where he unwittingly sees the killer for the first time. Al gets swept up in some frenzied dancing and popper sniffing during this scene and actually looked like "one of the muscled boys."

On Uniform Night at dark dive, he witnesses some heavy sex activity which included a sling and a can of Crisco. Freidkin fought like made to keep Al straight, but curious, and I think that he really did have catching the murderer as his #1 priority. But there were holes in the script. The main one came when Al felt he had found the killer and where he lived. He breaks into the guy's apartment, snoops around, but doesn't take anything that might have the guy's fingerprints! The police have the killer's print on the coin found in the gay book store's porn peep booth. Al ignores or forgets his training as an undercover cop. I think he was more interested in "getting under the covers" with some of those oversexed studs he stared at in the bars.

I hated seeing Malo turning into such a wuss during the stabbing scene in the Times Squre hotel. He could have taken that guy, or at least fought for his life!

My friend Denny did a wonderful job of cruising the guy who became the second victim who gets stabbed to death in the peep show at the book store over on Eighth Avenue.

And where did the idea come from to put two drag queens in leather and high-heeled boots, stomping through the Village in this mix?!!!. I've never seen any NY characters like that in real-life! And then, to have two wayward cops force "the girls" to have sex in the back of the police car? Please. It was nice seeing Keith Prentice (Larry in "Boys in the Band") as the partner of victim #2. He was a good actor and should have gotten more work.

You could see Pacino "changing" during the latter part of the movie. He felt self-conscious about his body after seeing all the perfectly-built gay men and he starts to work out. His love-making with his girlfriend became rough and abusive while the sounds of the depraved gay-bar-sex played in his head.

At the end (after he has solved the crime), we see Al Pacino, dressed completely in leather, headed for a night out in the sleazy leather bars...

Pacino, gives a realistic, but confused performance (as written and directed) and I enjoyed Paul Sorvino as the police chief. I liked the film noir quality of this piece, even though it was in color. The night was dark in this film and the bar scenes, though a bit over-the-top, gave a pretty acurate view of this underworld.

Where's the DVD on this ground-breaking movie?