by M.G. Wood

Release Date: September 18th, 2007

MPAA Rating: R

Warner Home Video 1980

This past week saw the DVD release of William Friedkin’s CRUISING. When CRUISING was released in 1980 it was met with a wave of protest from gay rights groups, only to find their dismay fall upon deaf ears. For the movie came and went (no pun intended) with a whimper. Al Pacino plays a cop (a recurring role in his career) who is chosen to go undercover in the seedy underground S & M world within New York’s gay community to investigate a series of murders. And this is where the protests come in: the depiction of oiled-up leather wearing gay men engaging in elicit promiscuity involving a bit of slap and tickle and/or the fact that the killer on the prowl may be a gay man hell bent on killing his own. All of this in 1980, pre-AIDS or at least pre-AIDS awareness. And to watch the film now, it is almost impossible to watch without thinking of the killer as AIDS in subtext.

The DVD is amazing, the film is just okay. The definition and color resolution on this disc is spotless. I’m guessing this may be due to the fact that very few prints were pressed back in 1980 as this thing bombed and/or was refused distribution. And as one who believes nothing is out of bounds when it comes to art, I must confess to being quite shocked at the graphic depiction of rough sex in the bar scenes, but then again it was the end of the 1970's. Sex was soon to become the most censored part of cinema giving way to an unbridled excess of movie violence. So, to view CRUISING in 2007 is to view a high octane sexploitation film distributed by a major studio, Warner Brothers, which really is shocking!

CRUISING is probably the most irritating kind of failure in that the movie has so much potential and so many very good scenes including some pretty scary slasher sequences, but is eventually weighted down by a stiff (no pun intended) police procedural. And just when you think the movie has wound down to a pat Hollywood ending, we are handed a brilliantly ambivalent ending reminiscent of Antonioni.

William Friedkin is often left out of the “1970's as the Golden Age of Cinema” discussion even after having delivered two masterpieces back to back, THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971) and THE EXORCIST (1973). But, Friedkin was never able to capitalize on his talent and sustain a lasting box office streak the way some of his 70's contemporaries had, and by 1980 his clout in Hollywood had evaporated. He had a minor hit in 1985 with TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A., and box office aside, an excellent action film.

Friedkin directing

In recent years William Friedkin has somehow made his way back through the studio gates, having directed two major studio films, 2000's war drama THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT with Samuel L. Jackson and 2003's adventure pic THE HUNTED with Tommy Lee Jones.

Friedkin decided to trade in some of his new found studio cred by returning to the down and dirty psychodramas he cut his teeth on. BUG, a psychological thriller set in a rundown motel in the middle of nowhere, and just the kind place a hard living, damaged woman (Ashley Judd) could be found and consumed by a Gulf War veteran (Michael Shannon) who may or may not be infected by a deadly insect infestation. Even with Lions Gates’ misleading ad campaign to sell BUG as a horror movie by way of the SAW franchise, the movie did not sell, and it’s all the better for movie lovers. Because when this thing quietly crawls onto the DVD shelves Tuesday, September 25th, some unsuspecting film patrons are in for a pleasant surprise, a pleasant perverse surprise.

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