Taglines: Al Pacino is cruising for a killer.
Cruising movie storyline. Severed male body parts have been found around New York City. These discoveries happen concurrently with a few gay men, they being involved in the subculture of leather S&M, being murdered, their arms and legs bound behind their naked bodies, and multiple three-inch deep knife wounds in their backs. The police believe the two sets of incidents are related. Lead investigator Captain Edelson offers the job of going undercover into the leather S&M gay subculture to find the murderer to police constable Steve Burns, who matches the physical type of the victims.
Despite being straight, he accepts the job as he aspires to be a detective, but he is told he can’t tell anyone, even his girlfriend Nancy, of his undercover work. Steve goes through a steep learning curve about this gay subculture as he tracks suspects. As he goes through this undercover work, he has to decide how far he will go to achieve success. But he also is highly affected not only by what he sees in this subculture, but by the police’s reaction to events that are happening around him. This may affect his ability not only to carry out the job but in his personal relationship to Nancy.
Cruising is a 1980 American erotic crime thriller film written and directed by William Friedkin and starring Al Pacino, Paul Sorvino, and Karen Allen. It is loosely based on the novel of the same name by New York Times reporter Gerald Walker about a serial killer targeting gay men, particularly those men associated with the leather scene in the late 1970s. The title is a play on words with a dual meaning because “cruising” can describe police officers on patrol and gay men who are cruising for sex.
Poorly received by critics upon release, Cruising performed moderately at the box office. The shooting and promotion were dogged by gay rights protesters, who believed that the film stigmatized them. The film is also notable for its open-ended finale, which was criticized by Robin Wood and Bill Krohn as further complicating what they felt were the director’s incoherent changes to the rough cut and synopsis, as well as other production issues.
About the Production
Philip D’Antoni, who had produced Friedkin’s 1971 film The French Connection, approached Friedkin with the idea of directing a film based on New York Times reporter Gerald Walker’s 1970 novel Cruising about a serial killer targeting New York City’s gay community. Friedkin was not particularly interested in the project. D’Antoni tried to attach Steven Spielberg, but they were not able to interest a studio.
A few years later, Jerry Weintraub brought the idea back to Friedkin, who was still not interested. Friedkin changed his mind following a series of unsolved killings in gay leather bars in the early 1970s and the articles written about the murders by Village Voice journalist Arthur Bell. Friedkin also knew a police officer named Randy Jurgensen who had gone into the same sort of deep cover that Pacino’s Steve Burns did to investigate an earlier series of gay murders.
Paul Bateson, a doctor’s assistant who had appeared in Friedkin’s 1973 film The Exorcist, who, while being prosecuted for another murder, was implicated (though never charged) in six of the leather bar murders. All of these factors gave Friedkin the angle he wanted to pursue in making the film. Jurgensen and Bateson served as film consultants, as did Sonny Grosso, who earlier had consulted with Friedkin on The French Connection. Jurgensen and Grosso appear in bit parts in the film.
In his research, Friedkin worked with members of the Mafia, who at the time owned many of the city’s gay bars. Al Pacino was not Friedkin’s first choice for the lead; Richard Gere had expressed a strong interest in the part, and Friedkin had opened negotiations with Gere’s agent. Gere was Friedkin’s choice because he believed that Gere would bring an androgynous quality to the role that Pacino could not.
The film was intended to depict gay cruising as it existed at the Mineshaft, though that bar is not named in the movie; since the Mineshaft would not allow filming, scenes from the movie were filmed at the Hellfire Club, which was decorated to resemble the Mineshaft. Regulars from the Mineshaft appeared as extras. Scenes were shot in streets and other locations near the Mineshaft. Pacino attended as part of researching his role. (A bar called the Mineshaft does not appear in the novel which, with substantial changes, was the inspiration for the film.)
Cruising (1980)
Directed by: William Friedkin
Starring: Al Pacino, Paul Sorvino, Karen Allen, Richard Cox, Don Scardino, Joe Spinell, Jay Acovone, Randy Jurgensen, Barton Heyman, Gene Davis, Arnaldo Santana, Sonny Grosso, Allan Miller
Screenplay by: William Friedkin
Production Design by: Bruce Weintraub
Cinematography by: James A. Contner
Film Editing by: Bud S. Smith, M. Scott Smith
Costume Design by: Robert De Mora
Set Decoration by: Robert Drumheller
Art Direction by: Edward Pisoni
Music by: Jack Nitzsche
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: United Artists
Release Date: February 8, 1980
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