|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cruising is the name of a film released in 1980, directed by William Friedkin and starring Al Pacino. The film is loosely based on the novel Cruising (written by New York Times reporter Gerald Walker), about a New York City serial killer targeting gay men in the 1970s.
PlotSpoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
In New York City, body parts of men are showing up in the Hudson River. Police think it is the work of a serial killer who is picking up gay men at bars and then raping them and mutilating their bodies. Officer Steve Burns (Al Pacino) is sent deep undercover to the urban world of gay leather bars in order to track down the killer. His undercover work takes a toll on his relationship with his girlfriend Nancy (Karen Allen) and leads him to question his own sexual orientation.
Spoilers end here.
ReactionThe criticism of the film can be divided between the quality of the film versus its alleged political message. In both cases most of the criticism was highly negative and gay activists had public protests against the film. Film critic Jack Sommersby's comments were common of the criticism directed at non-political matters such as character development and the changes made when the film was transferred from a novel to a film [1]:
The second major criticism of the film came from gay activists that felt that the film had a homophobic political message that would lead to a rise in hate crimes against gay men. The gay film critic Vito Russo wrote in his book The Celluloid Closet that, "Gays who protested the making of the film maintained that it (the film) maintained that it would show that when Pacino recognized his attraction to the homosexual world, he would become psychotic and begin to kill." (Vito Russo The Celluoid Closet p. 238, 1987). In the DVD version of The Celluloid Closet documentary one of the film clips included shows that a few seconds of pornographic gay anal sex was inserted into a scene where the serial killer is stabbing a victim with a knife. Gay activists felt that the film portrayed homosexuals as sexual predators morally akin to vampires and that mixing in gay pornography into a murder scene along with the film's exclusive focus on gay leather bars suggested an intent by the film's director to make a bigoted political connection between gay sex and violence.
The film received 5.6 out of 10 stars in the Internet Movie Database, becoming the worst rated film in which Pacino is the lead actor after People I Know (5.5), Out of It (5.4), Author! Author! (5.4), Bobby Deerfield (5.2) and Revolution (4.5). The film received even worse ratings at the All Movie Guide (2 out of five stars) and at the Rotten Tomatoes (4.3 out of ten stars). Positive criticismThe negative criticism of the film hurt its box office sales, but since the 1990s the film has generated some positive criticism. Today, the film is something of a cult classic among fans of horror films, some view the film as somewhat of a time capsule of the post-Stonewall pre-AIDS era of decadence in gay culture that was commonplace in many major urban centers in the 1970s and early 1980s, and gay activists point to it as a historical film that prompted a gradual shift in how Hollywood films depicted gay people. Raymond Murray the editor of an encyclopedia of gay and lesbian films titled Images in The Dark (p. 393, 1994) wrote that, "the film proves to be an entertaining and (for those born too late to enjoy the sexual excesses of pre-AIDS gay life) fascinating if ridiculous glimpse into gay life - albeit Hollywood's version of gay life. He goes on to write that, "the film is now part of queer history and a testament to how a frightened Hollywood treated a disenfranchised minority." The website Rotten Tomatoes includes a message board for the film where many contemporary horror fans see the film as a good thriller that was misunderstood by the public due to studio's requirements to delete important scenes in the film. TriviaJust two months after Cruising hit the theatres, a man armed with a sub-machine gun entered The Ramrod - a bar prominently featured in the film - and shot two people dead with a further twelve requiring hospital treatment. (Vito Russo The Celluoid Closet p. 237 -239, 1987). Over 40 minutes of footage were cut from the original release. The film has not been released on DVD and thus this footage remains unseen. There have been some online petitions being circulated in an effort to get a special edition of the film released on DVD with all the deleted scenes restored, and a director's audio commentary. A VHS edition was released in 1996 that was slightly longer than the original theatrical release but the extra footage only showed more sexually explicit images. The movie also represents the only film soundtrack work by the seminal Los Angeles punk rock band The Germs. The band recorded a number of songs for the film, of which one, "Lion's Share" appeared. Cast and crew
Awards and nominations
References
Sites |
Searched sites for "Cruising (film)" |
|
No sites found. |
Sorry, no matching site records were found. |
Want your site listed here?
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Submit
your site |
 |
|
Relevant quality search results and fast easy navigation throughout the
different sections of the site, make Americola.com |
