Review of Cruising (1980) by Antti R — 20 May 2009

William Friedkin had already made The French Connection in 1971 - a cold-hearted cop thriller where the heroes don't always get their promotions and every criminal isn't magically caught. He then made The Exorcist in 1973 - a horror fest where blood, vomit and bad language fly about as never before. Even so, The Exorcist was a terrifying experience and, just like The French Connection, a masterpiece from it's director. But when the year 1980 came William Friedkin was almost in a dead end. With everything already made, it's hard to shock people in cinematic boundries. So let's break the boundries. On top of the cruel reality from the Connection and the blood, vomit and chillingess of Exorcist, we throw in some underground gay S&M layers and a stalking serial murderer.

Al Pacino plays a small time patrol cop who gets sent to an undercover assignment. He has to infiltrate the sadomasocistic homosexual underworld of New York. Somewhere around these circles lurkes a serial killer slaying off leather-dressed gays. The storyline evolves quiet and calm and lets go of concervative cinematic frames. Cruising is directed to resemble a complete B movie. Cheap editing tricks, theatrical performing by the charachters and a low-keyd setting and lighting. If the film was directed by anyone else, you might walk by it as a cheap straight to video release. Maybe it actually is true. Maybe that's the case and a simple-minded viewer simply gets dazzled by the name of William Friedkin?

The film's screenplay is written by Friedkin himself and shows gimmicks we also witnessed in the Connection. Not every plot-twist is written to create Shakespearean monologue or nightmarish duel between two battling complex charachters. Enjoyable in all it's unpleasantness. Sinister, life-like, confusing. In all it's forced gruesomeness it becomes a bad movie you simply can't hate. You feel like you're watching Cops or something and secretly know that it's just what the movie-maker wants you to feel.