Cruising (1980) Film Review F

I WILL NEVER GET THIS TIME BACK AGAIN

KAREN ALLEN, WHOSE BEAUTY AND SCREEN PRESENCE GRANT YOU A MOMENT’S RESPITE – BUT IT IS ONLY A MOMENT

“Cruising” Director: William Friedkin: A serial killer is brutally murdering gay men in New York’s underground leather/S&M clubs. Captain Edelson (Paul Sorvino) recruits rookie cop Steve Burns (Al Pacino) to infiltrate the gay leather community and identify the killer. Burns must adopt the lifestyle, learning its codes and signals, while keeping his cover intact. As Burns spends more time in the clubs, he becomes increasingly disoriented. The assignment isolates him from his girlfriend (Karen Allen, whose beauty and screen presence grant you a moment’s respite, but it is only a moment) and raises questions about his own identity and desires. Burns befriends several men, including Ted, a neighbor (Don Scardino), while pursuing leads. The killer’s identity remains elusive, and the film deliberately blurs whether Burns himself may be implicated. The investigation culminates in violence, but Friedkin leaves the ending unresolved—suggesting that the cycle of murder and repression continues, and that Burns may have been changed in ways he cannot articulate.

Gay men in New York protested the making of “Cruising,” and they were right. It boasts not a single redeeming feature. Exploitation, anyone? I will never get this time back again.

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