Cruising (1980)

In writer/director William Friedkin's notorious, grisly slasher-thriller crime film about a police investigation - it examined the seedy and dangerous underworld of gay S&M in NY's West Village heavy leather bars (including clubs such as The Ramrod, The Hellfire Club and The Mineshaft). NY Times reporter Gerald Walker's 1970 novel of the same name was the basis for the dramatic film, as well as recent articles detailing unsolved gay murders by Village Voice writer Arthur Bell.

The plot of the sensationalized and often maligned cult drama - a gritty police thriller - was about an NYPD police investigation to find a self-loathing homosexual serial killer who was targeting gays. The originally X-rated film was eventually reduced to R after massive cuts of about 40 minutes of material (mostly graphic sex-club footage that didn't directly affect the plot) that was censored and edited out. [Note: Co-director James Franco's semi-documentary Interior. Leather Bar. (2013) reconstructed or "imagined" the missing 40 minutes of hardcore footage that were cut from the film.]

The controversial film told about an alternative or extreme lifestyle, and opened with a disclaimer that was forced upon Friedkin by the MPAA and United Artists: "The film is not intended as an indictment of the homosexual world. It is set in one small segment of that world which is not meant to be a representative of the whole." It displayed actual leather-clad gay-bar patrons as extras in the meat-packing district rather than actors, and was considered a precursor to some segments of Irreversible (2002, Fr.).

However, major protests and demonstrations by gay groups at movie theatres - the first of their kind - accused the semi-exploitational film of being anti-gay and homophobic prior to the AIDS crisis for its depiction of the gritty, kinky, dangerous, sex-obsessed and depraved lifestyle of homosexuals. The protest centered around the film's ultra-provocative plot -- murders in gay nightclubs (stabbings to emphasize the penetration metaphor), and the film's negative, one-sided and stereotypical view of gays portrayed as crude psychopaths, sexual deviants, and sexual predators engaged in violent fetishistic activity and various hardcore sexual acts (i.e., a scene of fisting with a nearly naked man shackled and hanging from the ceiling).

The film's box-office turned out to be respectable at $19.8 million, on a budget of $11 million. It received three Golden Raspberry nominations: Worst Picture, Worst Screenplay, and Worst Director (losing twice to Can't Stop the Music (1980) and to Xanadu (1980)). Nine months after the film was released, a mentally-disturbed man killed two people and wounded six others near and outside The Ramrod with a sub-machine gun.

• in the film's opening, a series of violent serial killer murders within the Big Apple's homosexual underworld led to the discovery of body parts (a severed arm and a torso) found in the Hudson River by a tugboat

Two NYC Patrolmen: (l to r) DiSimone (Joe Spinell) and Desher (Mike Starr)

Two Transvestite Prostitutes (l to r): DaVinci (Gene Davis) and Friend (Robert Pope)

• in a gay neighborhood in Manhattan one night, two patrolmen were in their squad car during a routine drive through the 6th Precinct; DiSimone (Joe Spinell) (who was resentful against women after the breakup of his 10 year marriage) and his misogynistic partner driver Desher (Mike Starr) noticed lots of gays on the sidewalk, as DiSimone exclaimed: "One day this city's gonna explode...Look at these guys, Christ, what's happening?"; they began to sexually harrass two transvestite prostitutes: blonde-wigged DaVinci (Gene Davis) and his Friend (Robert Pope), and ordered the two into the back-seat of their squad car; Desher propositioned DaVinci to give him oral sex: "Come up here. I wanna show you my night stick. Move your ass. Get up here"
• as DaVinci moved to the front passenger seat, a black leather-clad individual wearing sunglasses and black pants, seen only from the rear, crossed the street behind the cop car and entered one of the area's private sex-clubs that catered to gay men (briefly viewed as he descended stairs)
• the individual entered into the underworld of S&M in the sex night-club, where fetishistic homosexual patrons wore leather jackets and publically performed soft and hard-core sexual acts with same-sex partners

Burns Inside a Private Gay Sex-Club

• one of the sex-club patrons Loren Lukas (Arnaldo Santana) sauntered over and propositioned the unidentified, leather-clad, sunglasses-wearing male (later identified as Stuart Richards), who said he was from Mars; Lukas was pleased: "Terrific. I never made it with a Martian before"
• shortly later, the two took a taxi together and entered a cheap room in the St. James Hotel for sex, where Lukas (wearing a black jock-strap) began kissing his male partner before they moved to the bed with adult men's and wrestling magazines on the floor; at about 5 AM after having "anal intercourse" and sleeping together, the nude Lukas was taunted and threatened with a hidden kitchen knife removed from the boot of his partner and held to his neck; he became fearful as he heard the words of a taunting lyric: "I'm here, you're here, we're here," and was ordered to lie face-down on the bed; Lukas asked: "What are you gonna do?" and was told: "I know what I have to do"; Lukas' hands and feet were bound before he was lethally and viciously stabbed in the back multiple times; the killer (with his mouth in gigantic close-up) then blamed his gay victim: "You made me do that"
• during the ensuing investigation into Lukas' stabbing murder, Captain Edelson (Paul Sorvino) learned from forensic scientist Dr. Rifkin (Barton Heyman) in the morgue that DNA did not exist in the sterile killer's ejaculate found in Lukas - the victim; due to the increase in gay-related crimes and deaths, connecting violence with the homosexual lifestyle, including another crime - the unsolved murder of Paul Vincent, a gay college professor at Columbia University, Captain Edelson called dark-haired police detective Officer Steve Burns (Al Pacino) into his office
• to the straight-heterosexual cop Burns, Edelson had called him for a "special assignment" - to investigate the unusual rash of gay killings - by bluntly (and teasingly) asking him: "Have you ever had your cock sucked by a man?...Ever been porked? Or had a man smoke your pole?'; in shock for being asked, Burns laughed and replied: "You gotta be kidding"
• after Burns was shown a bulletin board about the two latest gay murders, Edelson asked Burns about going undercover: "How'd you like to disappear?"; Edelson explained how Burns resembled the profile of the serial killer's multiple victims (including the "torso victims" from the river), and was the perfect weight, age, dark hair and physical body type to help 'lure' in and capture the killer: ("I wanna send you out there to see if you can attract this guy"); however, it would put Burns into a non-mainstream homosexual scene: ("They were into heavy leather. S & M. It's a world unto itself"), yet it would help him to be ambitious and advance his career within the department after obtaining a "gold shield"; he would be dispatched to locate and identify possible suspects and possibly to serve as 'bait' for the killer, in the Meatpacking District of NYC that catered to gay clientele with various sordid sex clubs

The Latest Victim - Paul Vincent - Gay Columbia Univ. Professor

Another Gay Victim: Actor Loren Lukas at St. James Hotel

• there was one other requirement for the job: "And nobody can know anything about what you're doing"; when asked for his reaction, Burns excitedly answered: "Yeah, I love it"; Burns was required to pose and transform himself into a gay man, meaning that he was forced to keep his girlfriend Nancy Gates (Karen Allen) in the dark for awhile during the "dangerous" case, without being able to tell her any details about his new assignment; after deflecting her questions, he admitted to her - intriguingly: "There's a lot about me you don't know"
• Burns assumed the name "John Forbes" (an unemployed commercial artist who just graduated from art school), moved into a West Village apartment, and soon became friends with his next-door neighbor - struggling gay playwright Ted Bailey (Don Scardino), whose dancer roommate Gregory Milanese (James Remar) was out-of-town at tryouts for a musical
• soon enough, Burns began to regularly frequent gay bars (such as the Ramrod, Wolf's Den, the Eagle's Nest, the Anvil, and the Cock Pit, among others) to observe the scene; he learned the meaning of colored hankies in one's back pocket from Hankie Salesman (Powers Boothe) - invitations to either receive or give a b-job, to be a hustler or to be a buyer, or to receive or give a "golden shower"; his nightly routine included applying makeup, wearing leather garb, and lifting weights; he watched further acts of sexual depravity, including oral b-jobs, S&M bondage, and leather-masked and jock-strapped males, as he was becoming infected by the contagious music and the stares of gays in the crowd; one night, he retreated outside to nearby Central Park to scope out the area

Scenes of Burns Going Undercover in a Gay Bar and In the Park

• as an undercover cop, Burns regularly reported back to Edelson in a pool-hall bar about how he had acquired inside information from bartenders about the "regulars," and a name that kept "popping up" was Tommy Mancusi ("Tommy the Joker"), the owner of the Cock Pit (who presumably had Mafia connections)
• meanwhile, another similar knife-stabbing murder occurred in a wooded area of Central Park; Eric Rossman (Larry Atlas) (who heard the tell-tale homosexual lingo he had learned to initiate sex: "I'm here, you're here, we're here...Where are you? I'm waiting for you!") was stabbed in the back by his male pick-up
• in the next immediate scene, Burns walked along a dark street, dressed suspiciously similar to the garb of the serial killer; he and Nancy experienced aggressive sex after the murder of Rossman; the next morning at breakfast, he urgently hugged her and asserted: "Don't let me lose you. Okay?"; the headlines in the New York Daily News reported: "KNIFING IN CENTRAL PARK - Homo killer on the prowl"
• the next evening, Burns entered a gay sex club, viewed from the same low angle that the leather-jacketed killer had entered earlier; during "Precinct Night" where patrons were costuming themselves as policemen (with police hats, nightsticks, handcuffs, etc.), the nervous and sweating Burns - without the proper gear - was asked to leave; he rushed outside where he was followed and propositioned by a suspicious gay male named Skip Lee (Jay Acovone), but Burns rejected his overtures ("Not tonight")

"Precinct Night"
Skip Lee (Jay Acovone) Spotting, Following and Propositioning Burns Outside

• a second murder took place - fashion designer Martino Perry (Steve Inwood) was joined in an adult-male bookstore peep-show back-room by the leather-jacketed killer; he was lethally assaulted while performing an oral sex act during the viewing of a 25 cents movie reel of gay sex; the silhouette of the knife was seen on the movie screen, and blood splattered as Martino was repeatedly stabbed in the back; the serial killer again blamed the victim: "You made me do that"

Martino Perry (Steve Inwood)	Leather-Jacketed Partner - The Serial Killer	25 Cents Peep Show
Another Murder In a Back Room of a Gay Adult Bookstore/Videostore

• pressure was mounting on Captain Edelson to solve the gay-murder cases before the Democratic National Convention; he was warned about the jeopardy facing his job by his superior Chief of Detectives M. Berman (Allan Miller); a fingerprint of the killer was found on the 25-cent quarter used to pay for the adult-film by the killer
• during another night while stalking for possible murder suspects in one of the gay clubs, after Burns watched an example of "fisting," he also asked a bartender for background information on the gay man who had propositioned him; he learned that the guy - Skip Lee, was prone to be violent: ("He's a bad dude...Leave him alone. He's a scumbag"); during a frenzied dance Burns had with a partner, Skip Lee observed him from afar; shortly later, informant transvestite DaVinci informed the police that Skip Lee, a regular at the Cock Pit and the Anvil, worked as a waiter-busboy at a fancy Penn Station steakhouse known as The Iron Horse; it was determined that the restaurant's steak knives conceivably matched the kiiller's weapon of choice from forensic photos
• shortly later during a sting operation, Burns met up with Skip Lee at a gay club and led him to the W. 14th St. Motel, to a room that had been wired with police surveillance; Burns encouraged Lee to tie him up as he laid face-down on a bed, but Lee was hesitant; the police burst into the room for an arrest where they found Burns bound with his hands behind his back; Lee was naked but there was no knife
• during the intense police interrogation following Skip's setup, neither man said that they had done anything wrong; Burns was confronted and bitch-slapped by a large black man wearing jock-strap underwear and a cowboy hat, an NYPD officer who was inexplicably involved in the brutal questioning; after the beating, suspect Lee was coerced to confess to all the previous gay murders (and shown photos of the victims) and also bitch-slapped, but ultimately was found innocent (his fingerprints didn't match to the peep-show quarter at the crime scene) and the operation against him was aborted
• Burns' undercover work was beginning to affect and dampen his banal, missionary-position sex with his girlfriend Nancy, and she was perplexed about his impotence and asked: "Is it me? Are you turned off to me? Why don't you want me anymore?"; he admitted that he was losing his sexual attraction to Nancy: ("What I'm doin' is affectin' me"); she suggested that they break up ("Maybe we should cut loose for a while" and he agreed
• exasperated by the violence and gay-bashing, and the effects on his personal life, Burns was about ready to quit being undercover, and met with his boss Edelson: ("I'm not getting paid enough to go through this....I don't think I can do the job, Captain. I don't think I can handle it, that's all") and feared that he had homosexual tendencies ("Things happening to me, you know"); however, he was pressured to continue his undercover work by following up on a lead in Professor Paul Vincent's murder, by perusing pictures (from two years of Columbia Univ. yearbooks) of every student who ever took a class from the Professor

Stuart Richards (Richard Cox)

• Burns learned from the University Registrar the apartment address of Stuart Richards (Richard Cox), a current Ph.D student, and one of the deceased teacher's former music undergrad students who was found in a yearbook photo - Claremont Avenue in Morningside Heights; Burns stalked after Richards and when he was away from his 4th floor apartment on a jog, he broke in via the fire escape; he found Richards' leather-jackets and other familiar garb, and evidence in unmailed letters that Richards had written to his deceased and disapproving father (John Richards in St. Louis, MO) that revealed his dark and disturbed thoughts; he also noticed that Richards had taken an interest in Augustine's City of God; after awhile, Richards realized that he was being followed after finding signs that his apartment had been violated and searched
• in an hallucinatory vision while sitting on a park bench, Richards remembered his father Jack/John (Leland Starnes) (dead for 10 years) urging him to eliminate impure gays and seek homicidal reprisal against them: ("You know what you have to do") - or was his father pressuring him to end his homosexuality?; Richards proceeded to put on black boots (hiding his knife), a leather jacket, and a police-hat to pursue his next victim
• at the same time, Burns experienced a volatile altercation with neighbor Ted's gay partner and roommate Gregory Milanese - a belligerent, crazed, and intensely-jealous dancer; in Ted's next-door apartment, Gregory attacked Burns and drew a knife on him
• later, Burns was able to initiate a nighttime meeting with Richards in Morningside Park (near Columbia Univ.) across from his apartment; the two engaged in a demanding game of cat-and-mouse, and then in a frightening, climactic scene that occurred in a park tunnel, Burns removed his pants and Richards was asked to follow suit: ("Bashful?...Then get 'em down. I wanna see the world. Go for it"); as Richards slowly lowered his pants, Burns noticed him remove a hidden knife in his boot; Burns defended himself against being stabbed and aggressively put his own knife into Richards' abdomen

Burns Meeting Killer Stuart Richards in Morningside Park - and Stabbing Him in the Abdomen During an Assault in Tunnel

• while Richards was recuperating in a hospital, Detective Edelson informed him that his fingerprint was found at the site of Martino Perry's murder in the peep-show booth, from the quarter used for the adult peep-show movie-fee; Richards was pressured to confess to all of the other related murders: ("If you confess to the murder of Martino Perry, and Loren Lukas and Eric Rossman, and four or five others we think you're involved in, we'll reduce your sentence")
• by film's end, Burns' sweet gay neighbor Ted Bailey was found stabbed to death and mutilated in his apartment with a kitchen knife -- and Ted's gay partner Gregory was considered to be the prime suspect, due to his previous altercation with Burns
• meanwhile, Burns continued to wear his leather-garb and visit gay bars even after the Vincent murder case appeared to be solved and the serial killer was thought to have been apprehended
• a last-minute, ambiguous final sequence opened up the suggestion that the sexually-confused Burns, who lived next door to Ted, had taken on the persona of the killer -- Had Burns killed Ted or any of the other victims?
• Burns decided to move back in to his girlfriend's apartment; as he was shaving his beard in the bathroom and Nancy returned home, he told her: "I need to talk to you. I wanna tell you everything"
• Nancy found parts of Steve's gay costume (the killer's costume = leather jacket, biker cap, and pair of aviator sunglasses) draped on a chair - and she innocently tried them on; meanwhile, Steve was engaged in a long meaningful look into the mirror at himself; the mirror image dissolved full-cycle to a shot of a Hudson River tug boat where the film began

The Film's Ambiguous Ending
Nancy Wearing the Killer's Costume	Steve Gazing At Himself in a Mirror