Gordon Windsor

Cruising is a difficult movie. I first saw it on laserdisc when I was young, my father was silently disapproving but we were a free thinking household where nothing really was taboo. I didn’t really know about the controversy surrounding the movie until much later. A friend from New York said he had been at the protests during filming. There were reviews and discussions after Fatal Attraction was released saying it was a metaphor for AIDS (I’ll let you look that up for yourself), and it might be argued that Cruising was accidentally a metaphor for AIDS too, particularly in light of Friedkin’s decision to use different actors to portray the killer at different points in the film. I think the biggest problem was that the BDSM leather crowd didn’t like their lifestyle being given a public airing. Of course not every gay man in into leather, S&M or sex in public parks, but if you want a wholesome gay couple try American Beauty (that has its own baggage, what with Kevin Spacey). After 45 years things become even more blurred, as we look back on the late 80s and early 80s through a modern lens, one tinted and distorted by modern ideological issues and the insistence (largely by the media I believe) that ‘gay’ is subsumed within the larger LGBTQIA+ community, and some of the characters in Cruising would be now defined as ‘trans’. But enough mulling about the meaning. The 4k disc has, in my opinion, a much improved colour palette and crispness without unpleasant grain. Cruising always, perhaps appropriately, felt a little washed out and a product of its time (late 70s) but now I find it more watchable. I find most of the acting perfectly fine, with one exception, Paul Sorvino. Acting like he’s been sedated, at his most emotional he’s still barely awake, although we do get a smile near the end. The script is a little ragged and sometimes you wonder if the editing is intentional or sloppy. But it’s a movie that, if you can stomach it, certainly offers the possibility for much discussion.

This movie, rewatched after many years, had me shouting at the screen. That’s a good thing. It’s not a perfect movie, but are there any? It will upset many, when I lived in California some people were sickened by this movie and felt it should never have been made. Personally I think it’s much better than any of the sequels that take a far more ‘straight’ social justice moral message positioning. This one has at least some moral ambiguity. There’s a saying, no good deed goes unpunished. One action, meant kindly, unleashed untold violence and terror on a family. Was it worth it? I know if the Purge was real I’d definitely want to off at least one of my neighbours.