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| Al Pacino in Cruising |
Is Cruising deliberately or only accidentally inchoate? It could hardly be anything else, having been attacked before, during, and after its production by the queer community. Its star, Al Pacino, has never been comfortable discussing it, while its creator, William Friedkin, remained on the defensive. At its best, it overturns any expectations we may have about detective thriller movies. When we see cops harassing gay men in the opening of the film, we probably expect those cops to get their comeuppance in the end. When we learn that it's about a serial killer preying on the leather community, we expect the killer to be found and disposed of, probably violently, at the end. When we see a straight cop (Pacino) chosen to go undercover in that community, we expect him to solve the case but stay straight. That would be the course of the conventional movie. But none of that quite happens. Instead, we are left with ambiguities, inspiring a small industry of commentary that persists today. It's probably best to regard Cruising as a period piece: a document of attitudes, from outrage to ambivalence to acceptance, toward gay men in America just before the outbreak of AIDS.
