Hmmm. Personally, i’m a horror/thriller fan and always appreciated Cruising. Yes, it’s edgy and dark, and many characters are homophobic—but that all seems realistic to that world and time and genre. It’s not supposed to be a 1980 Will & Grace.
Friedkin also directed Boys in the Band and an early Sonny & Cher flick. I actually interviewed him once about Cruising and don’t think he was personally antigay but was committed to capturing the seedy gay s/m world as it actually existed — regardless of whether it was deemed harmful to the broader lgbtq political movement. Is that good or bad? Does it change an appreciation of Cruising? That’s all subjective, like most art.
I also read the original novel, which has a truly bonkers slasher ending—at a bathhouse!—so actually Friedkin toned it down. Looking forward to this Mineshaft doc. … Thanks for highlighting it!
My take on "Cruising" is not that it's supposed to be a positive representation of being gay like "Will & Grace" — I think the protests that happened in real time were more about that. But once you watch the film, its actual message is irrefutably that being gay is akin to murder, and is contagious. That is clear from the scene in which a victim is stabbed to death from behind during a sex encounter, and you see gay sex happening intercut with it. And of course the ending, which he changed without telling Pacino, enraging him, makes it very clear he was saying that Pacino had been seduced by that world and had become a gay serial killer / serial killer of gays. Movies like "Crusing" or "Boys in the Band" or "Basic Instinct" get attacked for showing negative images and/or for having content that expressly relies on homophobia. I would argue "Boys in the Band" was unpleasant for gay activists in the moment, but it doesn't strike me as at all deliberately anti-gay now that we have plenty of representations. "Cruising" is forever anti-gay. "Basic Instinct" I'd probably have to watch again, but I recall it felt "Cruising"-esque in that it seems like every lesbian was a killer LOL Even Dorothy Malone. I really think "Cruising" is, gay aside, a stinker as a film with laughable scenes and dialogue, though I think the cinematography is spectacular and it did capture a scene. (I think people who love or hate "Cruising" will like "Mineshaft"!)
Now i want to rewatch Cruising and Basic Instinct! It’s been over a decade since i saw them and i may change my viewpoint (tho i also remember both being super stylish in their own ways). .. regarding the homo sex and death scene in Cruising, i took it to mean that the killer linked the two in his mind (irrationally of course) or that the message was those particular types of hookups were knowingly flirting with death — like in Madonna’s Bad Girl video, but much more brutal!
It is interesting how these darker queer movies resonate differently over time and in different eras of gay acceptance.
Hmmm. Personally, i’m a horror/thriller fan and always appreciated Cruising. Yes, it’s edgy and dark, and many characters are homophobic—but that all seems realistic to that world and time and genre. It’s not supposed to be a 1980 Will & Grace.
Friedkin also directed Boys in the Band and an early Sonny & Cher flick. I actually interviewed him once about Cruising and don’t think he was personally antigay but was committed to capturing the seedy gay s/m world as it actually existed — regardless of whether it was deemed harmful to the broader lgbtq political movement. Is that good or bad? Does it change an appreciation of Cruising? That’s all subjective, like most art.
I also read the original novel, which has a truly bonkers slasher ending—at a bathhouse!—so actually Friedkin toned it down. Looking forward to this Mineshaft doc. … Thanks for highlighting it!
My take on "Cruising" is not that it's supposed to be a positive representation of being gay like "Will & Grace" — I think the protests that happened in real time were more about that. But once you watch the film, its actual message is irrefutably that being gay is akin to murder, and is contagious. That is clear from the scene in which a victim is stabbed to death from behind during a sex encounter, and you see gay sex happening intercut with it. And of course the ending, which he changed without telling Pacino, enraging him, makes it very clear he was saying that Pacino had been seduced by that world and had become a gay serial killer / serial killer of gays. Movies like "Crusing" or "Boys in the Band" or "Basic Instinct" get attacked for showing negative images and/or for having content that expressly relies on homophobia. I would argue "Boys in the Band" was unpleasant for gay activists in the moment, but it doesn't strike me as at all deliberately anti-gay now that we have plenty of representations. "Cruising" is forever anti-gay. "Basic Instinct" I'd probably have to watch again, but I recall it felt "Cruising"-esque in that it seems like every lesbian was a killer LOL Even Dorothy Malone. I really think "Cruising" is, gay aside, a stinker as a film with laughable scenes and dialogue, though I think the cinematography is spectacular and it did capture a scene. (I think people who love or hate "Cruising" will like "Mineshaft"!)
Now i want to rewatch Cruising and Basic Instinct! It’s been over a decade since i saw them and i may change my viewpoint (tho i also remember both being super stylish in their own ways). .. regarding the homo sex and death scene in Cruising, i took it to mean that the killer linked the two in his mind (irrationally of course) or that the message was those particular types of hookups were knowingly flirting with death — like in Madonna’s Bad Girl video, but much more brutal!
It is interesting how these darker queer movies resonate differently over time and in different eras of gay acceptance.