"Cruising"

[wastingmymind]

The director is Bill Friedkin, who brought us films like "The French Connection," "The Exorcist," as well as being on the record, the worst interpreters of gay culture in film history.

 

[Marion]

The Gay Protest against the movie Cruising is, today, widely viewed as the ultimate example of Newly Empowered Gay Power Groups Gone Wild. If you catch the re-release DVD of the movie, you know that the director William Friedkin was far more up to date on That particular segment of the Gay Community in New York than the mindless idiots protesting the movie. The simply truth is that a lot of the patrons of the Leather bars depicted in the movie were in the movie, whereas the assholes who just wanted to get their pictures in the news (and who weren't part of the Leather Scene) were protesting.

William Friedkin based this movie on actual murders in the Gay Community that the NYPD didn't give a shit about. One of the actors in the movies (who plays a cop) was an advisor to Friedkin and he was actually a former NYPD cop who KNEW of the actual murders and how the NYPD ignored them. Friedkin visited leather bars in NYC to reproduce the "realism" of the bars and, as said, in many cases he used actual patrons of the bars in the movie.

If the actual patrons of the bars consented to being in the movie, what does that tell you about the assholes protesting?

The Effect of the movie is that the music used in the movie is today considered almost Iconic of Gay Leather bars in NYC at the time. However, Friedkin says in the re-release DVD of the movie that he decided to use music that He liked at the time RATHER THAN the music that was being played in the bars.

The biggest shocker to me about the movie is that the outrageous scene of the Black Cop in the jockstrap walking into the interrogation room and slapping the gay suspect is claimed by Friedkin and the former cop advisor to the movie to be a true representation of how the NYPD tried all kinds of outrageous bullshit against Gay People.

The guy in the movie who played the transvestite hooker in Black Leather is the brother of the actor from "Midnight Express" and "Quelle" - he speaks on the DVD about making the movie.

 

[Telstra]

I have not watch the movie yet but sounds interesting.

 

[Marion]

BTW, do you recall hearing about any big Gay Protest over the re-release of Cruising on DVD?

Cruising is the same movie today that it was with it was first released. If the movie is so offensive and such a false representation of the Gay Leather Bars in NYC at the time, why weren't THE GAYs protesting the re-release of the movie on DVD?

If you google the re-release of the movie on DVD, you will find a lot of reviewers who agree that the protest of Cruising were misguided.

 

[Telstra]

BTW, do you recall hearing about any big Gay Protest over the re-release of Cruising on DVD?

Cruising is the same movie today that it was with it was first released. If the movie is so offensive and such a false representation of the Gay Leather Bars in NYC at the time, why weren't THE GAYs protesting the re-release of the movie on DVD?

If you google the re-release of the movie on DVD, you will find a lot of reviewers who agree that the protest of Cruising were misguided.

Lets reverse the question,
Why weren't people prostesting against Friday the 13th, its series and such similar movies ? Double standard don't you think ?

 

[jimm04]

too many threads about "Cruising"..

 

[Marion]

not to give anything away about the plot of the movie but, William Friedkin discloses on the DVD that, at different points in the movie, The Killer is played by different actors.

 

[wastingmymind]

So, I assume you didn't like the film?

I haven't seen Cruising. I did judge him by another movie of his about the gay culture, "The Boys in the Band," which was extremely outdated and crossed the line towards campy, even though it's supposed to be an adaptation of a Broadway/off-Broadway play. Again, I probably don't like him because his depiction of the gay people is outdated even for the 70's. And now he talks in his interviews as if he was doing us a favour.

A lot of my movie geeks in my social circle hate him, he's screwed up the DVD/Blu Ray of "The French Connection," and my knowledge of 'Cruising" is from the protesters side. I suppose it would be enlightening to know that a lot of gay people were killed in the 70's/early 80's. I'm not sure if that's an aspect of out history that I wanna dwell on.

 

[bike10]

Saw it years ago and it was daring for the time.

 

[Harke the Boeotarch]

too many threads about "Cruising"..

There can never be...

I haven't seen Cruising. I did judge him by another movie of his about the gay culture, "The Boys in the Band," which was extremely outdated and crossed the line towards campy, even though it's supposed to be an adaptation of a Broadway/off-Broadway play. Again, I probably don't like him because his depiction of the gay people is outdated even for the 70's. And now he talks in his interviews as if he was doing us a favour.

It was great and fairly accurate when I watched it last year.

A lot of my movie geeks in my social circle hate him, he's screwed up the DVD/Blu Ray of "The French Connection," and my knowledge of 'Cruising" is from the protesters side. I suppose it would be enlightening to know that a lot of gay people were killed in the 70's/early 80's. I'm not sure if that's an aspect of out history that I wanna dwell on.

I much enjoyed "Cruising". I wish there were more movies like it.

 

[miaedu]

I really like the music in the scenes were they were in the leather bars. Wonder if anyone on jub was going to similar bars in NYC during the late 70's can fill us in.

 

[bike10]

The film did give inside look at bars, hankies and even poppers.

 

[Marion]

I think you would have had to have seen the original theatrical release of Cruising in theaters to have seen any fisting scene in the movie. I'm pretty sure there is no explicit fisting scene on the re-release DVD and only hints of fisting taking place on the VHS tape of the movie.

In one of the bar scenes in the movie, there is one guy laying back on a sling being fisted and there is another gay in a bathtub that is on the floor in the middle of the bar. About all you can see is the positions of the guys and not much else.

According to the director, some of the original more explicit bar scene footage was lost and not available for the remastered dvd.

A couple of Bruce LaBruce's movies with Cazzo Film make Cruising look like a PG movie. As with there being no gay protest of the re-release of Cruising on DVD, I don't know of any Gay Protest of Bruce LaBruce and his films either

The message of Cruising has been made relevant even today in New York when it came to light that the New York City Police Department concocted a scene to shut down Porn Stores by fabricating charges of prostitution against 50+ year old Gay Men. The NYPD had no fucking problem deliberately accusing innocent men of prostitution and destroying their lives simply to fabricate a case for claiming the porn stores were promoting prostitution.

William Friedkin states upfront that it was the indifference of the NYPD to murders in the Gay Community that interested him in the story.

 

[Marion]

The Hanky Code was around a long time before Cruising. And, the active ingredient in Poppers was / is a medication that I think was used to "dilate" blood vessels in heart patients (or something to that effect).

I saw a young guy in NYC with a hanky hanging out of his back pants pocket a couple of years ago and I wondered if he was signaling something of if he was just making a fashion statement. The hanky he was wearing was for the active party in fisting.

 

[palbert]

Travis - it's been 30+ years since i saw it. Scared me to death, well, close enough. Thank you for bring it back to memory.

 

[maxpowr9]

I heard what others think and many of them feel the movie deserves to stay in the 80s as a piece of deplorable nostalgia.

I also shame you travey on bumping on a nearly 3-year old thread.

 

[nondescript]

I remember enjoying it when I watched it, although I could see why some people were upset.