Another Gay Movie: Cruising

"Another Gay Movie" is a series of posts contributed by TNG gadfly and frequent commenter "Adam Isn't Here."

Before tackling this week’s entry in the gay film canon, “Cruising”, I think it might be helpful to give a bit more context to this pet project of mine. Zack told me to. So I’m laying down some ground rules.

1. No documentaries: I’m not a fan of gay films. I feel about them the way a lot of the readership here seems to feel about gay bars. They’re boring and predictable at best, grating and offensive at worst. But I’ve found in the past that gay-themed documentaries are some of the least aggravating gay movies I’ve seen. There are many interesting and insightful gay docs out there. I’m just not covering them here. I’m sticking to fiction if for no other reason than to narrow the field.

2. Try for a broad scope: Apart from the documentary rule, I’m going to try and watch as many different types of movies as possible. Different time periods, different countries, different genres. I could write week after week about the series of crappy coming-out indies that were so common in the 90’s. I don’t want to do that. Also I’ll try for a broad definition of gay movie. Hopefully I’ll come up with some stuff that you wouldn’t expect.

3. Don’t beat yourself up over sticking to the rules: This kind of goes without saying for me. I’m trying to apply some structure here, but if the odd documentary slips in or I watch three American movies in a row I’m not going to lose sleep over it.

That’s all for now. I’m making it up as I go and reserve the right to change the rules at any time. Or ditch them altogether.

If I could only have one or the other, I’d personally rather gay people be portrayed in film as constantly fucking and killing and self-destructing than a bunch of castrated, asexual, infinitely virtuous AIDS martyrs. Booooring. Any film that seems to be even hinting at watering down gay life to make it more palatable for suburban parents who worry about their children being taught at school by homosexuals (gasp!) will get severe treatment from me. I came for a movie, not a fucking two-hour PSA. Apparently the forward thinking gays of 1980 would not have agreed with me.

The production of William Friedkin's "Cruising," the story of a cop in New York going undercover to catch a serial killer preying on gay men, was continually interrupted by gay-rights groups’ protests. Upon its release, San Francisco’s United Artists HQ had to be guarded by riot police. Seriously. The queers of the day were, quite understandably, tired of being shit on and were, quite understandably, ready to riot up the place. Cruising was to homos what The Last Temptation of Christ was to Christians. It was an unacceptable portrayal of something sacred. The Ascension is to Christians as the leather bar is to the gays.

OK, OK, so that’s not what they were so upset about. They were upset that gay men were shown as slutty, and freaky slutty at that. The first five minutes of the movie show more leather jock-strap framed asses than I have on my whole hard drive. That’s a lot of bare ass. These asses are bumping and grinding against each other in a popper-soaked hanky haze. Cocks are getting sucked, asses being pounded all over the bar. What a bunch of whores! It looks kinda fun if you ask me.

To be fair, the film is quick and decisive about clearing up that this is not normal fag-behavior. Well, the freaky part of the sluttiness anyway. Paul Sorvino’s police deputy calls in Al Pacino’s rookie-cop for a special undercover assignment. Some crazed leather-daddy is slicing and dicing his way through the meat-packing district, one trick at a time. This isn’t a run-of-the-mill homo killer either (the “homo killer” moniker is culled directly from the film.) It’s happening far from the “mainstream of gay life” in that “world unto itself”: the seedy underground leather club. Pacino’s the man for the job because he’s just the killer’s type. He’s the only one who can stop him. Lure him in with your slight frame and Italo-fro hairdo Pacino, but don’t lose yourself in the process!

Anyone care to guess what happens to our brave little man once he dons the harness and starts huffing on that hanky? That’s right, he kinda starts to doubt his own sexuality, his personal life unravels and the bodies continue to pile up (and occasionally float up in the East River).

In the end Cruising is really just a typical genre murder mystery in chaps. It’s an unspectacular one at that. If one really wanted to read into it I suppose that the killer could be a symbol for AIDS, but that doesn’t hold water as this was released slightly before the major outbreak. Take away the “shocking” sexual elements and there really isn’t that much to it.

As far as the riots well…Gay-activists have always been a cagey lot. If "Cruising" were made today, I doubt there would be such passionate resistance to it. As far as I could see, the most offensive thing about it is the suggestion that prolonged exposure to leather and poppers can turn a straight guy gay. Sure the killer had daddy issues (an unfounded gay cliché in my experience) but don’t all serial killers have issues with their fathers?

Verdict: Meh. I’m glad I saw it because I’ve been meaning to for a long time, but by no means should you have to sit though it.