There's nothing like a good controversy to sell a movie. When "The Last Temptation of Christ" came out, Christians everywhere were picketing the movie… get this… without even seeing it. When "Dogma" came out, Christians everywhere were picketing the movie… without even seeing it. When "Basic Instinct" came out, lesbians were picketing the movie… without even seeing it (Well, most of them actually DID see it, but that were only looking out for the infamous crotch shot). When "True Lies" came out, Indians were picketing it because Evil Arab Terrorists were being portrayed as (gasp) Evil Arab Terrorists. Heck, even when "Aladdin" came out, it was picketed because the idea that the palace guards would cut off a hand for stealing food was way out of line… despite the fact that it actually was (and still is in some parts) an accepted form of punishment.

The point is, no matter what the film (or book, or TV show, or political opinion), there are thousands… wait… make that millions of out of work people in the U.S. ready to take up any cause that they feel is just (ie; will get them on TV). Just look at the 400,000 person 'Million Man March', they had busses loading up to bring people to that debacle… of course I have to wonder why women's groups didn't protest it being called a Million MAN March… somebody missed their 15 minutes of fame with that one.

Looking back on 1980, I vaguely remember it as being the year of "Cruising," the one Al Pacino movie that I actually had never seen. Not sure why, I love Pacino… even in a lot of his newer movies where he pretty much just plays himself being loud. When "Cruising" came out, there was a flurry of activity from Gay activists who proclaimed the film to be anti-gay. Let visit that in a moment, shall we? In "Cruising", Pacino played Steve Burns, a New York cop who gets an extremely dirty assignment. He has to go undercover to catch a killer preying on gay men. And when I say undercover, I really mean undercover.

In accepting the assignment, he has to pretend to be gay and peruse the leather bars that used to be so prevalent back in the 70's and 80's. Here men dressed up in their best Rob Halford attire and did unspeakable things to each other (unspeakable because you really shouldn't talk with your mouth full… sorry couldn't help that one…). These are the places where you might expect the Village People to come walking in at any moment. As if hanging out in these places and looking for a killer wasn't bad enough, Burns begins to feel the burn, as it were and questions of his own sexuality begin to ferment in his mind. "Cruising" makes for an interesting character study, even though it doesn't fully explore the ramifications of how an environment can affect a person's personal perception.

Getting back to the controversy for a moment, "Cruising" got a bad rap at the time because it supposedly showed gays in a bad light. It showed them as being leather clad, cross-dressers ready to go down at a moment's notice. It made them seem as though some of their proclivities were downright disgusting. But here's the problem with that argument. At the time, this type of underground gay environment did exist (and still do, though to a lesser extent). "Cruising" wasn't proposing to be a documentary of gay life in New York. It was a murder mystery first and foremost. Gay activists were worried that the movie would give the perception that all homosexuals lived like this. Unfortunately for them, that's like saying "American Psycho" would make people think that all white heterosexual males are killers. Anyone watching "Cruising" and believing this to be the 'normal' lifestyle for all homosexuals would have to be so stupid that they already believe that. Bottom line is that there was nothing to protest. (But unemployment was a problem back then, too.)

Aside from that point, I finally saw "Cruising" for the first time a few days ago (which you might have surmised since I already commented on some direct aspects of the film). Warner Brothers just released a special edition DVD, and admittedly I have to rank Pacino's performance amongst his best, in spite of the movie's few flaws. As a murder mystery, it’s merely decent. The screenplay sets up the mystery, but the way the movie plays it's as if Burn's questions of his own sexuality and its affect on his life should be the movie's main premise. The problem here is in that part of the story is never really fully explored. It's as if the movie has two stories, neither of which is completely told. In the end, it almost becomes more a voyeur's movie than anything else.

What keeps it from becoming totally lost in its own plot are William Friedkin's ("The Exorcist") abilities as a visual director. The movie looks outstanding, delivering a look at what used to be the prevalent dark underbelly of New York. Thankfully New York has been cleaned up a lot since then, but there was a time that just walking the streets at night meant putting your life at risk. Places like the clubs in the movie really did exist en masse, and never once in the movie do they seem like happy places. They are dark, foreboding and ominous.

I also have to mention Pacino's performance again. A role like this is not one that could be taken lightly by an up and coming actor at the time. More so then than now, public perception as to sexual preferences could make or break a career. Pacino was willing to open himself to negative perceptions by playing a man throwing himself deeply into the gay community in order to solve a crime. Whether or not he was gay, or ended up gay (it's rather ambiguous as the film ends), audiences would still perceive he was or might be. So his willingness to approach a role like that mixed with his trademark intensity make for a performance far removed from any of his others. Of course, Pacino did play a gay character just five years prior in "Dog Day Afternoon", but there is was an underlying part of the character and not so blatant in physicality.

Warner's release of "Cruising" also gives viewers a commentary track by Friedkin, but don't expect a whole lot here. I was looking forward to hearing from him as his interviews are usually fascinating, but as a commentator he mostly just describes what is happening on screen. There is however, a documentary feature that runs a little under 45 minutes. While it is a really good feature, it was kind of interesting to note that Pacino did not take part in any of the interviews.

Generally movies that were considered 'shocking' over 20 year ago are pretty tame by today's standards. "Cruising" does not fall into that category. The lifestyle is presented with a gritty realism and should still shock the heck out of most mainstream audiences today. But if there is one reason to see it, it has to be for Pacino's outstanding performance.

Directed by: William Friedkin
Starring: Al Pacino, Paul Sorvino, Karen Allen
Extras: Director Commentary, Two Featurettes, Trailer
Specifications: Widescreen, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Studio: Warner Brothers
Release Date: 9/25/2007
Region 1
MPAA Rating: R
Website

We'll give Cruising a B.